Once (Commentary)

Thank you for listening to Big Machine Radio
And I'm glad you're here because we've got Eli Young Band
Sharing their brand-new album "Fingerprints" with us
And, you know I talked to groups and duos and things like that
And they generally have a pretty stock answer for this next question
But I'm gonna ask you to just kind of go with me here for a minute
And be honest with me

You know, you guys have been together for a long time, over 15 years
And so I'm wondering what is it that allows you all to
Maintain the peace, stay together
Because I mean, face it you know, Brooks & Dunn, they decided to call it quits
Sugarland, they went their separate ways
Even Lady Antebellum, they took a year off and finally came back together
So, what is it that you think continues to keep Eli Young Band together as a band

I mean I think that there are elements of family that keep us together
I think that we are very aware that this probably won't last forever
And we are honest with ourselves about that
But we also, you know, have always had the priority of putting our friendship first
We don't think of each other as coworkers, you know
We think of each other as college buddies, that
That we actually get to hang out with all the time, you know

So a lot of people don't grasp that the music part came
Later in our relationship with each other
We were, you know, buddies in college and the music is a, you know
A by-product of that friendship, and growing up together
So we spent you know, half of our lives together in that regard
And we were blessed that the music came from that

And it continues to be fun too, we still enjoy it, enjoy each other's company
And hang out, make each other laugh, all that kind of stuff
So there's not you know
If it wasn't fun, this would be a tough gig

And if you think about it from a job aspect, I mean
Strictly from a job aspect or a career aspect, it's a pretty damn good job
And it's a pretty fun career we're in and like we really don't take that for granted
And don't take for granted the fact that, the added value of the four of us
The sum of our parts is bigger than any of us could be doing without us
And so, we change that, we lose, so much that we've worked 17 years now to build
And that makes it pretty easy to go down that road together

And I think that the fact that we like to hang out with each other
Shows you know, we, when we get off the road
Yeah, sure sometimes we all go our four separate ways
But sometimes we don't, you know
And James has been stalking me for years and he lives a block away from me
So there's just no way I can get away from him, you know, literally
As much as, yeah, even though you try
Sometimes I set the alarm, make sure that he can't get in

Well you know, you can never be too safe
But speaking to James, I know you co-wrote the next song that we're gonna play
With Laura Veltz and James Osborne, it's called "Once"
So where did the inspiration come from for "Once"?
Tell me about writing this song

We had a friend of ours that was going through a tough time with his marriage
And so yeah, I mean it was, that was what we started the idea with
But James had the original idea of "Once"

I had that idea that there's some things that you can only do one time around
And then it started, kind of like a fairy tale, and a once-upon-a-time thing
And when that line came out, then it just steamrolled from there
But yeah, that was the idea

And "Once" kind of just, it feels, you know, a little bit like old-school Eli Young Band
Kind of some of those driving older songs of ours
And you know, what's funny about that song is that
We didn't really change a lot from the beginning of writing it
To the actual studio recording

In fact, the vocals that are on the album
Are the original vocals from cutting the work tape on it
We kind of inserted those in there and it felt so natural
Sometimes you just really can't recreate that
And luckily, beginning we recorded it at home
And luckily it was good enough to be on the record
As far as the quality of the vocals

It does sound great
You'll find this on "Fingerprints"
The new album from Eli Young Band, which is available now
This is called "Once"