Between the release of their fifth album Music In The Madness and returning to St David’s Hall, in Cardiff, Lizzy Ward Thomas – one half of the eponymously named twin-sister UK country duo – talks Nashville, authenticity and identity with John-Paul Davies.
Your new album Music In The Madness is such a strong collection of songs – talk us through its writing process.
Lizzy Ward Thomas: Catherine and I are very inspired by a lot of what we experience and see externally. If we’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by the world or anything, we put that into our songwriting and creativity. We also have a great writing relationship with a few people: we go to Nashville a lot and write those lyric and melody ideas with people that we’ve written with for a couple of years, like Rebekah Powell.
A lot of the inspiration comes from the different music that we listen to. We don’t just listen to country music, we listen to a lot of Americana and the classic 70s and 60s music like Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles – people who are very harmony-based. And so we’ve kind of put all of that into the room. We never like to be too genre-specific, but naturally, Catherine and I are very country. We grew up in the countryside, we both still live there and we love the kind of authenticity and storyline and harmony of country music. So I guess it all starts from there.
It’s interesting that you’re writing in Nashville, but you’ve really established this British identity for your country music. Has that come naturally or been intentionally developed over time?
Lizzy: When we wrote [2014 debut album] From Where We Stand, we were very young, 17-18; we recorded the whole of that album in Nashville. So we’ve been heavily influenced by what’s going on in Nashville, but also in other genres over here. And I think that’s been a natural progression.
But we just love going over to work in Nashville, it’s like no other place. You’re there, you’re living and breathing music everywhere you go, and there’s live music playing in the evening. And the way you write music over those sessions is very productive: people start a session at 10, till 2, and then go to another session and write two or three songs a day. It’s very productive.
I’m a sucker for a ballad so Loved By You is my standout track from Music In The Madness. If you had one song to get people into Ward Thomas, what would you choose?
Lizzy: Thank you! Loved By You is actually one of our favourite songs on the album. I guess if you hadn’t heard Ward Thomas before, Carry You Home is a pretty good example of what we’re all about with harmony, stories – it has that mellow moment where you can hear a harmony shine through, but also a big chorus where you can jump up and down and have a good time. That song always goes down very well.
What do you aspire to, if you’re already considered to be at the top level in UK country?
Lizzy: I think to be able to keep doing this as long as possible. The music industry is changing constantly, year by year, and we’re all playing catch-up for numerous reasons: Spotify, streaming, social media and radio are very different now because of that. Achieving longevity within this career would be an amazing achievement, and we’d feel very fulfilled by that. And being able to keep going on tour and growing and developing, and meeting so many more artists that we’ve always been inspired by and loved.
We feel so very fortunate to have been on tour with incredible people and to do more of that would be an ultimate achievement. We were playing Liverpool last night, and I remember we were singing Justice And Mercy, one of the songs of our new album, and I could see people knowing the lyrics to the new song. It was amazing.
So do you think the situation you’ve just described – streaming, airplay etc – makes people more risk averse? Are you concerned about going too far out there in one way or another and losing your core audience, or do you think it makes you push yourself more because you have to keep engaging with more people?
Lizzy: I think both. We definitely push ourselves more, because a lot of people have said to us in the past that they don’t really know where to place Ward Thomas’ music. In America, we’re seen very much as Americana, not country; over here, we’re very much into the country music world.
When we wrote [2019 album] Restless Minds, we pushed the boundaries a little too far into the pop world, and noticed people weren’t liking that as much as our previous stuff. We love all the songs on it, but were overthinking the production to try and get on certain Spotify playlists. And I think people can see through when you’re trying to be too calculated.
But when you write something that’s super authentic for you, it just seems natural. And so instead of going too pop or overthinking [Music In The Madness], we decided to just write what we would gravitate towards, musically, and it seems to have been taken a lot better – especially during CTC festival with the country music audience.
Do you have an idol who lives up to that high, authentic benchmark?
Lizzy: Brandi Carlisle is probably one of my favourite artists at the moment. She’s just doing so much for the music industry. Every artist wants to collaborate with her, whether you’re super pop like Miley Cyrus and P!nk, or you’re like Chris Stapleton – as well as, you know, Joni Mitchell! She does so much for the music industry and music and creative songwriters out there by pushing boundaries – you can create Americana, and authentic folk music and be gaining popularity in your 40s. She’s got a really long career and background that is so admirable. We went to see her in Nashville, and she brings on so many different people and artists and she’s very, very authentic and modest. You just love that about her.
So, with your tour coming to Cardiff this month, what can the audience expect from a Ward Thomas show?
A good time and a laugh as well as some intimate moments. We like to create the set on our tours like we create an album – to take people on a journey. That’s what we hope people will leave our show feeling like they’ve been taken on: some sort of journey.
Ward Thomas, St David’s Hall, Cardiff, Tue 11 Apr
Tickets: £25.50-£53. Info: here
words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES
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