EXCLUSIVE: Interview With Natalie Stovall and The Drive

(Photo : Kim Jones / Photographer Brian Jones - Licensed to Music Times)
L to R - James, Joel, Natalie, Zach, Miguel

The movers and the shakers in the country music industry all say that Natalie Stovall and The Drive are going places. After hanging out with them and seeing a live show, it's easy to see why. They really do have the total package - the talent, the spirit, the drive and the heart. They're fun to hang around with and even more fun to watch perform.

Before their February 15, 2014 show in Columbus, GA at the Outlaw Saloon, Natalie, James, Miguel, Zach and Joel sat down with Music Times' Kim Jones and photographer Brian Jones to chat about all of the changes they've experienced since getting signed.

Kim Jones - So let's talk about the whirlwind you guys are caught up in ...

Natalie - I think one of the biggest things about us is that we've been together for so long and we know each other so well. We've been on the road for 8 1/2 years. We are our own little family and unit. Sometimes it seems like we have our own language. We were talking about that earlier with our tour manager, who just joined us a couple of months ago. We say so many quotes and things that have developed over the years and nobody else knows what we're talking about if they haven't been with us - it makes no sense to them.

James - I think one of the most interesting things right now is so much of what we talk about it focused on the single and the record, which is like a really cool new component for us. It's fun, because we get to go back out and play live now after spending so much time focused on that. Playing live is what we do. We came up as a live band. All of this awesome progress means you spend less time playing live because you're in the studio or doing this other stuff. It's been really fun to see these steps - more people showing up at the shows because they heard the song on the radio or they saw a write-up or a video. That's never happened before. It was all kind of word of mouth before.

Natalie - They came because they'd seen us before or something.

James - Or they'd just come and be like "Oh, we heard there was a fiddle here tonight." It's such a different experience when people are walking through the door, already kind of excited for something. It's what we've been working for for the last how ever many years. We're starting to see payoff in little pieces and it's just awesome.

Natalie - Already, I've noticed a lot more people that know the lyrics to our songs and the difference is it's people that I've never met before. The people that I used to see that were singing along were people that I knew because they were coming to a lot of our shows. So it's really kind of a weird thing. I have to step back and go "Oh my gosh! They heard us on the radio!" You know?

Joel - It kind of put the pressure on me, singing backgrounds, because I had to learn the lyrics!

Natalie - Now you have to know what you're singing!

Kim Jones - But hey - think back to Garth Brooks in Central Park. He didn't actually have to sing that much because the million people in the audience were singing the songs for him!

Natalie - Yeah! When we hit that point...

Joel - We'll work towards that...

James - Now you see Joel in his natural element...confused all of the time!

Natalie - That would have come in handy last weekend when we were all getting sick. I really needed a lot of help from the crowd singing along with us because my voice was just gone.

Zach - And they helped.

Natalie - I know. They did.

Brian Jones - All of the changes that you've talked about, has that kind of changed the live energy at your shows?

James - I would say, yes and no. It's funny. It's really fun to see it happening but I think that one of my personal favorite things about this project is that we've always had fun. There's that little extra element that you can look at and say, "Whoa - this is different!" when you're getting more back. But I wouldn't say that I'm having a whole lot more fun because I had a whole lot of fun before - when we were completely uncool. Now, we're still mostly uncool.

Natalie - Yeah, but now we're like cooler.

Joel - It's kind of like, we've always been having a party. It's just that now, other people want to come to our party.

Natalie - That's a good way to put it!

Miguel - The thing for me, being on the road for so many years. We all took on things to do other than play guitar or play drums ... like James did tour managing and we took over other duties in the band. Now we have such a great team working for us. They've been amazing and it brings energy to the band.

James - It is weird to turn stuff over sometimes. For so long, it's been just the five of us doing everything and it's like, "Oh - you're gonna do that now?"

Natalie - Yeah, it's a weird experience knowing that there is a full team of people, working as hard as we are working on the road. That's where you start to see the exponential growth. You have a record label; you have a radio promotions team ... They are going out and talking to the stations and connecting us to the stations so that we can get the single on there. It's crazy! It's exciting and fun.

Miguel - That's probably something that people don't see. Changes they don't know about.

Kim Jones - There is so much stuff that goes on behind the scenes that the fans never know about or think about since they don't see it. Like when you get sick on the road...

Natalie - It's amazing - the energy that does come. That's what happened last weekend. We were playing in Georgia and there were people that had driven up from Panama City Beach and people that had driven down from Louisville, Kentucky and I'm sitting there thinking, "OK, it doesn't matter how we feel. We're gonna put on a great show for them." My voice literally started giving out and I had nothing to sing but we all pulled together and these guys were singing more than they normally do, taking the weight, and my fiddle had to be my voice that night so I played a lot and they sang and we were all in it together. When all of those people are coming out for you, it gives you that extra boost. You're like, "Alright. You guys are here and we're not gonna let you down."

James - It's so funny. After so many years of touring, it's like, every time you get sick, you're on the road. It's kind of a drag in some ways because you think, well, I've got to get up and do these shows. This last week was the first time I've been sick at home in years and I'm so used to having to do stuff, so it was kind of a drag. I was like, "Well, I CAN not do anything today," but then you realize, I've BEEN doing nothing but sitting on the couch for 12 hours feeling miserable. I could have played a show and then driven seven hours! Then you're occupied at least. The experience of being sick at home was just weird. You sit there and think, "So, do I make soup now or what?"

Zach - The next time that happens, you can come over and clean my garage! I'd be doing it for your own good.

Kim - Now that's a friend for you! Plus, it beats another bowl of chicken soup. It's a change in the game.

James - Yeah, I'd have something to do and the excitement of wondering what I would find in Zach's garage!

Kim - Speaking of game changers, the game really has changed for you guys since getting signed. Now it's an adventure, but it's even more of a job because now you have the record label and the team expecting results. Headspace wise, how do you wrap your minds around that?

Natalie - For me, it's game on! It's a situation where it's like, "Finally!" These are the things that we've been wanting and hoping for and dreaming about. It's like when you're in training and you finally get to play in a game. The NFL players train for months and months and months and then they finally get to start the season. That's what we've been doing for almost a decade - training and thinking about that time. So it's like, "Bring the real game. Let's do this now!" I want to work from the morning until the wee hours. I want to get up and do all of the press and all of the things that go along with playing shows. I've always dreamed about that. People have said, "I hope you're ready for this" and I'm like, "I AM! I'm so ready! This is all I've been ready for!" Operating on little sleep has never been as issue for us.

James - I think we've always been really fortunate. When we set out to find this project, we were thankfully, able to be really picky. We've always had such a high standard, even when we were playing college cafeterias to 17 confused kids who were eating lunch. They would be like, "Why the hell is a band here today?" and it was like, "I don't know, but we got hired to be here." Some bands get down on stuff like that but we never did. We had so much fun even doing shows that would be considered bad by some people. So now that this other stuff is happening, the expectations are raised, but we've always had such high expectations for ourselves that it's not that different. Sometimes I really admire the bands that get off the stage and go, "Dude, we're the best band ever tonight!" and we always get off the stage and go, "Well, there was that one thing that we could have done better." So I feel like the transition hasn't been that difficult because we've always tried to do the best that we could.

Joel - I think the other part to that is that all of these new people that have jumped on board with us did it because they like what we do. So it gives us a little bit of confidence and we walk a little taller. I think it's cool and it adds to the music and the show.

James - Well, I will say that there a couple of interesting moments in the first shows we did with the label. They were flying in program directors and radio people to check us out and there was this crazy, nervous energy from the label. They were like, "I hope this goes well. This is a really big deal." And we were like, "Oh my God! Do we take it up?" So we get on stage and do what we do and then we get offstage and we're like, "OK - was that like, 'next level' enough?" because it just felt like "normal." Then someone walks up and says, "That was great!" and you're like, "Was it? Cool!"

Miguel - Then you get a guy like Paul Worley and he wants to produce your record and you're like, "Here we go!"

James - Yeah and you're like, "It sounded good to me, but was it 'Paul Worley' good?" So on one level, you feel like it's like your Super Bowl and you should get super psyched and then, after a while, you're able to go, "OK - people seem to like what we do so we can just relax and do our thing." That was the coolest change for me - to realize that the pressure goes way down when people like what you do. At least some people. My mom's not sold on it. (laughs)

Kim - Still waiting on you to get a "real job?"

James - (laughs) Yeah ...

Kim - Ya'll spend so much time together, you really are like family and the dynamic of your relationships translate on stage to give the crowd more. The back and forth is there, the talent is there, the energy is there...and that was just from watching your video! I can't wait until show time to see you guys perform live.

James - That was all CGI!

Miguel - That video has been kind of our "through the years" thing.

Natalie - It's like a road diary for us.

James - It was funny. There were a couple of clips in there that we couldn't identify what show they came from. We turned over all the footage we had and when it came back, we were like, "Oh that looks really cool! What show was that? Gosh, we played a lot of shows!" We got to see little moments and they brought back so many memories.

Zach - It was nostalgic.

Joel - It's like looking at a yearbook.

James - There was this part of me that thought, "I hope other people like this because it could be like looking at a stack of someone else's vacation photos that you weren't on." It was so personal and seeing other people react to it was like, "Wow! They like our vacation photos!"

Kim - Yeah! You guys have some amazing vacations!

Miguel - My birthday every year...

Natalie - We do a lot of things overseas for our military every year on the 4th of July and Miguel's birthday is July 3rd so we're never home to celebrate. We're always somewhere else...

James - Yeah, like Japan, Bahrain...We're always somewhere and he's accepted that he'll never be home for his birthday. We'll always be somewhere else.

Kim - Speaking of somewhere else, I know that you all have a show to get ready for so you need to be somewhere else. I've really enjoyed hanging out and can't wait to see you on stage tonight.

The show - both sets - were simply off the chain! Whether they were playing their own songs or doing covers that ranged from country to rock, Natalie Stovall and The Drive owned the room. (See the concert slideshow)

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Interview, Natalie Stovall and The Drive