#128 – High Valley

Sleep number. What do you have? We're about literally they walked in and what I like about you guys is we can just go and I don't want to waste any of you guys is just amazing wit and charm. So we just wanted to hit the button. What's on your phone over there? My mom just sent me our Remple Family recording from and I have a song on it. Do you want to hear it? What's what's that? When the RepA you guys recorded like a song? It's a family like the it's the whole album man, like the

Partridge family. Do you know what that is? Yes, I've heard of them. Yeah, now that's not really it. I don't know if you're being if you're being funny or not. I have heard of the Partridge Family. Yes, they were before all of our time. I was born in the eighties. I assume you guys are born in the eighties and nineties. I'm not sure how old you are. Birthday was yesterday? Is that right? So look at that? You feel confident with your twenty year old self? You like where you

are now or now? Yeah? Yeah, I feel good about it. I've got gray temples and everything. It's crazy. Hell do you brade? Okay? So this recording from so you weren't even born yet. I was not. No, okay, so you're not in this for the best quality. Always play it through an iPhone into a micro Okay, yes, absolutely, go ahead. But how are you in this if it's eight four? Okay? Singing lead? So what where are do you remember that at all? Uh? No? But I remember performing it. I

won fifty bucks. I got second place in the Lacrete Talent contest for my age group, and I went to Home Hardware and bought a farm set with little cows and chickens and horses. Dreams coming true. Man, you can hear you were kind of on in Key though before pretty honestly, I I just heard it driving out here because mom just email. I had to walk our mom how to through how to email an attachment, which she did very well. Congratulations Mom. And did you listen to this?

Of course you will, yes, especially if you play that part. You're gonna cut that out or keep it? Oh, everything goes up. There we go. There's no editing on this. She's listening that. So let me run through a couple of solential quick because I definitely want to get back and talk to people that don't know you guys. So here is she's with me from High Valley. Sounds familiar. Give me a little more volume my ears on that one. There we go, Can you guys hear that over there?

The first time we've done this with two people. By the way, ever we waited, there are other people that wanted to come in you that I promised you guys months ago that as soon as we get two microphones, you're the first one. Uh here's a make you mind? Did you get the second microphone on Amazon Prime? Got it on and I have to dash. I need so many microphones. You just wanted that button and you just put over the toilet paper and send it to Yeah beautiful, Yeah,

it's amazing. Uh, there's that one. That's a good one. How uh how had that one go? They went somewhere in the teens. Okay, so you don't know exactly, you're not that dialed into. Yeah, but there's so many different charts, So what about sheets with me? Though? That one went to that's crazy. It was the number one song. It

was a number one caliber song. If you if that same song would have been and don't take this in a weird way, if it would have been anyone that would have had hits prior, that would have been a number one song. That's not offensive at all. We totally understand. Yeah. Yeah, And I think we talked about this because we were in Denver and I was like, guys, this is a great song. You're being penalized because all these big artists are at the same chart at the same time. Yeah,

you know. Any and obviously we want to go number one, we really do. Everybody does, but we truly don't have to pretend. We actually were quite thrilled that we had a song go in the top ten and hang out there for sure. I don't know months. It was there for a long time. I'm sure people sing it back, both of those songs, right, especially in the last couple of months. It's like the volume of singing back, it's louder every week. And also there's some money to be made.

Once you get in the top ten, you know you're finally starting to make a little bit of money. And I don't know how much of that you guys are getting outside of your publishing. So do you guys make any money from that yet? Yeah? Make your mind. Actually made a lot of money because it was on the charts for fifty six weeks. Yeah. So, um, I bought a swimming pool. I was swimming in it today. You're not kidding, not at all. You made enough money to

buy a swimming pool? Yeah, but who'd you write that with? My buddies ben s Dennis and Seth Mosley. Ben U lives a few houses down so whenever we're not home, his family swims in the pool out with them. At the same time, I wonder the dynamic because here you are brothers and your your bandmates and you're the song that you wrote is a single, so you're making songwriter money too, but you're not. That's gotta be a slightly weird dynamic because he's getting paid a little more for it.

I think you could make it weird if you wanted to. But if people talked about in interviews and making you know, well, no, it's just honest thing. I wonder sometimes, because I'll give you an example, the guys from a little big town, sometimes one or two of them will be in a right and not all four of them, and then it's gotta be weird whenever you go into deciding what the single is going to be, what song is going to

go to radio, because that's real life dollars. Yeah, that would be if Curtis wrote too, and we were like picking between one of mine and one of his, that would definitely be. I don't write, so I think that probably helps you don't write, correct, Are you being serious? Yeah, you're the sarcastic in Cartis. I never know if you're you're messing with me or not. I am sarcastic. But I also do not write, and that is the truth about So it doesn't bother you. Then you're probably happy

that he wrote it. Yeah, we listen. I mean we we listen to outside songs all the time, and I almost never like outside songs I like brad songs. Look at you? So really you don't you don't sit and right, I've tried, and um, it's a very uncomfortable thing for me to do. And I know most songwriters just would probably say, well, it was uncomfortable for all of us, but um, yeah, I I honestly, I thought about how hobbies for years and I tried to figure out which

one was for me. And I tried to write songs and it was just never comfortable. And then one day I built a table and it was the best day of my life. So I just keep building tables instead of writing songs. I'm fascinated with this because is you're quite good musically, Like I watch you, I want you to play and you play the little thing. Yeah, play the little thing. Yeah yeah, you play the little thing.

You're you're you're quite efficient on that. So you obviously have that that whatever that is in the brain to create musically. Isn't that in a way of writing to Okay, so what you don't write words? But come on, you sit down. Musically you can't write melodies? You can you can? Maybe I can? Yeah, he's got out should write Oh alright, I want write well, but alright, alright, everything cool? Yeah, right, alright too, But I was calling you right now, man,

this is my phone's vibrate in this whole table. Anybody cool? You guys have any cool friends yet? No? Yeah? Yes, this is just our our sound engineer, our production manager. Wow, that's cool. Who's that? Who's who's your guy? Paul Shipless? Yeah, Chameless. I'm still trying to learn how to last fan of his work. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's a good guy.

As are you guys cooling Canada? Um? What do you mean? No? No, no, no, And I'm I'm being serious because if I go to Okay, I use Nashville, or if I go to Austin, or if I go to Tampa or Boston, I'm cooler there than if I go walk down the street in San Francisco because shows not on there don't have any and they don't like country music there. So when I say, are you cooling Canada? In Arkansas? That's that's where I'm from. They're proud of me there. I'm proud to be from Arkansas.

I am their son because I'm able to go and represent who they are. So when I say that that, in no way is that a a jab. But you guys like, are you cooling Canada? Because people ask me are you cool in Arkansas? I'm like, hey, yeah, I'm super cool in Arkansas. I love it. I'm gonna be the governor of Arkansas. So are you actually Oh yeah, yeah, for sure, I did read something. I'm not kidding. I say this all the time. I'm going to be the governor and I might be the President of America. Called

President of America is called President United States? Are you cooler in Canada? Meaning well, the show sell more? Will if you can you do bigger TV appearances? Can you walk down the street in certain areas that are big and they're like, oh there they are? Yeah? Yeah, I would definitely say that's the case, although we've had more TV exposure in the United States than we ever have in Canada. Yeah, I would say Boston, Orlando, and Minneapolis

would all be bigger. In Chicago, bigger crowds, bigger tickets, bigger everything for High Valley than any Canadian city. After those four uh, it would start. You know that. I pulled it. I pulled it up our top cities by audience. There is one Canadian city in the top ten and it is in eighth place. But to be fair again, I put Arkansas on mine, but there's not a lot of population there, so you're looking at just dad. I'm

talking about per cap But how cool are you? So her capita the cool is the most airport like autographs and signatures would happen either in like Minneapolis or Canadian cities. Maybe Minneapolis, Boston and Canadian cities. I was looking at a map of Canada because I'm on in ten cities in Canada now and and and growing, and so the show's on in ten cities of Canada. I went to Canada. By the way, you guys are super nice. I just

does see all of you together. You guys are all I mean, thank you on behalf of all of the nation. I went up there and never felt so warm and welcome like I was on my phone and I'm in Toronto, which is American as it gets for Canada, and it's still clean and people are nice. Oh my phone up a phone out. I'm kind of lost looking at the gapest. Someone comes up, he goes hey, and I think they're

gonna rob me. There's wondering where I'm trying to go because they're gonna help me with their human brain, and I'm like, wow, that's awesome. I was inside this restaurant and they took us because Rogers Media, who owns much radio stations, sit there. They syndicate our show. And I'm up there and I don't know where. I don't know. There's a fancy restaurant where you can't put your phones out because apparently can Adian celebrities hang out there. What

do I know? Was it the Soho House or something else? So it was it was okay if you heard of that. I've been there for breakfast. Man, we had breakfast. So I'm in there right A little do I know you can't pull out your phone and a little do I care because I'm gonna be me. I'm an idiot and I got my phone and I'm just look at I'm just staying on Instagram. I was probably like sending people messages being funny and ian and I look over and it's the dude from Ship's Creek the Sun. I've I've

not watched It's Creek, but I know about it. Oh, I thought you guys, I thought your National show. You know, um Bill our Ore TM watches it all the time. He really does it's super funny. And uh, so I started, I started recording on my phone and they dropped the hammer. They're like the phone down. I was like, did they do it nicely and politely though? Or not? Well? He didn't like that. I was it was Levy? Was it? You know his name Andrew Levy. It was the guy

from who cares anyway? Canada? Canada rules, Canada rules. And then would you ever come to our home? I'm actually serious right now, would you ever come to our hometown? Here was my point and all of that is that I was looking at the population of Canada because I started to be a bit curious about the dynamics of how the country runs, like, um, yeah, it is in the thirties, right, and I like Justin Trudeau, Like I think I like that dude. Um we talked in my

heart sometimes. Uh and so he wears a lot of red, he does. And so I was looking to population. And so you break Canada into four you put it into equal fourths, like where you're from, all that land up there, nobody lives there, nobody. You can go hours without seeing a store. That's where our hometown is. In that part of Canada. It's it's way up there, like when you look at the Canadian map, it's like the cold part

where you go, who in the world would live up there? Right? Yeah? Yeah, you have to fuel up because when you leave um, Slave Lake, Alberta, which is about five hours south of US, it's called Slave Lake Alberta as a town the worst kind ever heard. Yes one, there's one gas station in those five hours. If they can't change the name of that town from Slave Lake, I mean, no one goes hey, mayor, mayor of Slave Lake. We should probably change the name of this town. Do you know that there's an area

called lesser Slave Lake as well? I'm not sure. I've literally never thought of that until you brought it up. But feel guilty and awkward. Okay, we're gonna reset. Let me talk about livelock for one second. Okay, So, wishing someone happy birthday on social media may seem innocent enough, but fraudsters can piece together information from various places to hack accounts. Once they do that, they can snatch sensitive data,

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you guys growing up because we met. I was super fascinating with you guys. Well, you talked about you guys living in a remote part of Canada way up there. And so tell me about your house and what was it if you walked outside, what would you see um our yard was it was? It was a seven acre yard inside the trees. But if you included the border of trees around our yard. It was with eight acres

and it was kind of split in half. The included if you included the whole trees are oh yeah, yeah, there farm like a field around our yard as well. And did you guys farm the land yourself? Yeah? Yeah? And what did you have on the farm. We grew wheat with a hard tea on the end and canola. Those are the main two crops. Every now and then there would be like oats or barley or alfalfa or how would you grow wheat when it's that cold all

the time. It doesn't. The sun doesn't go down in the summer, so you get all that extra sunlight for a few months, like right now, it would be as bright as is in your house until about midnight. So in your life, the normal thing to you was in the summer, the sun didn't go down, correct, not while we were awake. Anyway, It might dip like it goes below the horizon in like June twenty one, as long as day of the year, right, So on June one, the sun dips below the horizon for I don't know

an hour, and that's normal to you. That's crazy. You can go play basketball at midnight, like call your buddies up and go hang out and play sports late at night, which we did all the time. I went to Iceland. Never been to Iceland, ever been really been anywhere. But that's the person I've experienced that where the sun stays up and for like an hour and a half it just goes down. And what time of year were are you there? Whenever the sun stayed up, So I guess

it would be summer. Yeah, I've never been Iceland. I'd love to, but yeah, that would be the general concept of how it was growing up, and it was cold all the time or now, um it was. It would it would get warm during the day and the summer, but I mean the difference between night and day was like I don't know, typically it would fluctuate like forty degrees. It still gets really cold, even on a hot day. It'll get down to like night on the in the hottest part of the year, and that's not so today.

The lowest forty nine degrees you're talking about fahrenheit, Yeah, yeah, in the summertime, and the highest sixty one Okay, that's not so bad in the summer. Then I just think about being like a blizzard like like eskimos all the time. I mean there's a large part of the year that's like that. So when it gets winter those it's dark the whole time pretty much. How does your body react, because again it's normal to you, but with it being daytime,

how do you go to sleep? What's up that clock inside? Is? For me, it was always hard to go to bed in the summer because yeah, the sun was out, it was time to go outside and play basketball or family was like that though, too, Like until I met my wife, I never got into the lifestyle going to bed early, waking up early. Our family was really wouldn't you say?

Like even now mom and Dad come to visit and they're staying away later than my wife and I. They're like we're checking our watches at midnight and they're like still wide awake. And then in something in the winter that was dark all the time, So everybody sad in the winter, Like it just seems like if it's dark and cold all the time, Apparently there is a lot of depression the further north you go. Um, just statistically, but I mean personally, I our talent specifically, yeah, pretty happy,

pretty happy place. I don't even know that I knew what a men and Night was, to be honest with you, until you guys came to this show turn alone. I'm still trying to figure out what a Minnonite is. There's so many different kinds. It's really confusing. So what is a Mennonite? Then, to you gets so much says what's a Mennonite? How do you explain that for us? I mean, well, for me, I still call myself a Menonite, but not

because of anything that I believe. I just call myself a Minutonite because of my background or my blood, you know, like we come from someone was Jewish. It could be because either where they're from or what they believe. Would that be an acceptable analogy? You could one the other or both. I would say, if your last name is Remple, you could tell another Minutonite you were in a Mennonite, but they would say, yeah, you are. Your last name is Dremp. It's like, how are you going to blood?

It's like it's like if you're from Ireland or your great grandfather was from Ireland, so you say you're Irish. It's pretty much the same thing if you're born in America but your great grandfather was born in Ireland. Then it's the same type of thing. For So what's a men and night? Like, what are the men and nights stereotypes? Uh, ankle length, denim skirts, no makeup, dis ault female stuff all. Even the guys don't wear makeup, no earrings. Um what else? Um?

A lot of like four part harmony in church, like just a piano and then tons of harmony. It's like they always joked that, like men and night, kids can harmonize by the time they're two, which is sometimes true. Um. Our sisters have a lot of kids, and he started singing harmonies when they were super young. Is that a thing to have a lot of kids? Oh yeah, yeah, definitely. Like our one sister has seven, one is five. I'm

the youngest of six. So if mom invites us over for lunch and says, hey, kids, come over, there's thirty six people. Is that right? Wow? Not just a Christmas just like on a normal Tuesday evening, that could be third. I mean it does sound like a lot of love in a house, be honest with you, Like that part sounds very appealing, like it's a lot of family. Yeah

it is. We tried. It was the other day. We were trying to explain to people because a lot of people say, yeah, we understand you guys kind of like family values and you know, that's such a generic normal thing to say, right, It's kind of like saying God bless America. It's a pretty normal thing. But to explain we were trying to, Curtison, were trying to sum it up the other day, like when we say family values

in a minute night town, it's quite different. It's like, you know, how here or anywhere in the world, it's pretty normal to have a babysitter a certain amount of time, and people that like don't do it very often say we don't do a babysitter very often. In a minute that town, you literally never ever do. Like everything you do is with your kids. So I'm oh, I did stay with the babysitter one time at Shelly had me over for that's not that's so it's that kind of thing.

Like one of our biggest dreams as a band is to someday be the first country band ever to sell out an arena based on family tickets, where it's like this is the price for a person, this is the price for a family, and everybody's there together as families. It's kind of weird dream of mine, and it seems like it would be that way. It would thrive in an area where there aren't where there's not a lot of cosmopolitan, but there's not a lot of people like you stay to your own group like you you you

were all together because you need each other. You're you're kind of feeding off of each other. It's like a business even like you all have your roles inside of it. I'm into it. I need to get like eighteen kids, get right on it. That's crazy. We only my wifriend I only have two, which makes us like probably not minutight enough. I was reading minutite dot com. They're not happy with you. That was one of the first thing it said. We are not happy to not hap There

definitely are some Mennonites that you have kids. I have two kids, you can have more. Yes, we will well. And I don't want to talk about the whole time. I'm just I don't know anything about it, and I know people want to know, yeah and be like, hey, what does this what does this come? Because it seemed like in America, this is like what are you all with? People up in the Northeast, the Quakers Amish. There we go. That is that a fair comparison? Yeah, almost broke out

of Minnonites Mennonites. Um, you guys the O G S Yes, sir, you know fred Armison called us. I texted you. Actually, when I met from Fred Armison, I was so proud to have met a famous person that we both knew. And um, he called us the original hipsters Mennonites, which I think is sort of that's true because we ate our neighbors cows and it was normal. Yeah, and we grew our on potatoes. Yeah, you asked, like, what it looked like outside our house, you'd get out there. We're

on this. If you look at an aerial view of our town, it's all in squares. Half a mile by half a mile is a hundred and sixty acres. We lived on two of them, and our neighbors would live on two of them, and everybody's just in these plots of land. They'd have cows, we'd have chickens, and you

just all buy food from each other. So when I moved here and people were talking about whole foods and explaining it to me, it was hilarious because I clearly had never experienced that before, and I hadn't heard about like organic and paying more for organic. And then when they explained to me what it was, it literally was our backyard, just paying extra for it. You were hearing organic and you're like, what is that? But really what they were saying was that this is what you're used to.

You're gonna pay more for what you're used to. Yeah, I had never I didn't know what organic was until I was probably eighteen, except you knew exactly what it was because you were living it. Yeah, just no word for it. You didn't know the process part of it. We call it eating food, I bet you. And everywhere you go people want to talk about this, right, and every interview is that, like, what's up Canada men Tonite? Right?

You know, it's weird. Nobody in Canada ever talked to us about being Mennonite ever until like last year, because they knew and it was not even a thing. I think there was no for sure. And even here there's a little bit of it is try hey, guys, try hard not to be so different, can you try? And like, um,

you know, the whole thing a little more relatable. Country artists should be like out there with their Red Solo Cup and hanging out with everybody else with the Red Solo cups and um for whatever reason, I think honestly, you were a huge part of it. Your interview where everybody kind of started talking about it and then um, people start saying, oh, maybe it's okay if you guys talk about it. Of course it's okay. I guess so frustrated what people say you can't be who you are.

When I came over here to the format, it was like, oh, you don't wear a bill buckle, cowboy, You're never gonna make it. I would love to see you with that, it would be amazing. But it just goes to show you that if you're authentic and who you are and not just that, you still have to be good. Yeah, but if you're good enough that it doesn't matter what

you are. If you're not hurting people or animals, people don't care to be good at it, Like, give them some sort of entertainment they can enjoy, and don't hurt kids animals. You're pretty good. I mean, that's a good recipe for success. Would be good? Is that in your book? Yes? Don't hurt kids or animals. Stay in school when you

guys want to move down here. Well, I guess I wonder creatively in that family, are you guys all making music as a family, Like in that little snippet I played you there, that was the whole family band, the Rymple family. That was just live off of the stage at church, right, Yeah, that was our album. We don't literally played ten songs live and recorded it, but um, Curtis and I are just the last two in our family to still you know, we want to keep doing it.

Everybody in our family was in the band at one point. Is it weird to them that not only do you want to pursue this to make a living, but that you want to move to a different country and pursue on this large stage. I don't think. I don't know if weird is the right word, But I mean it's been We've been doing this for a long time, longer than people realize. And our family has been, you know, with us for the whole thing. They've seen every single

baby step, you know. So, I mean there have been some shocking events I guess in our history, probably to the family. But it's like playing the Opry for the first time, that was a big enough event that in forty eight hours. They got passports and drove to the airport and flew here to see us at the opry. So what's driving to the airport? Five miles? Wow? Yeah, and it used to be um now it's all paved, but it used to be how many? How many miles? Was used to be growing a hundred and fifty miles off?

It was gravel to get to the airport. And what airport is that? Edmonton? Okay, so let me let's do the map here five miles at eighty miles okay, except you can't do that on gravel road. But okay, but it paved now right, Yeah, so at eight times six is forty eight you're talking about. You gotta stop him. P Yeah, it's considered an eight hour drive for most Like on on Google Maps it would eight out. You drive eight hours to the airport, you drive fast, but

Google tend to get a passport. Yeah, they didn't have passports yet, so they had to at the expedited McDonald's in our town. Two yeah, two hundred miles to McDonald's, two miles to the movie theater, which when we went home and did a documentary a couple of years ago, we interviewed my Mr. Award shop teacher, and him and his wife had just driven to the movie theater and

back for a date. Like they drove two hundred miles, saw a movie and drove back, like they didn't get a hotel there, they just went and saw a movie. A lot of people in our hometown, including our brother in law, um, have season tickets to the Edmonton Oilers, which is in Edmonton, which is eight hours on games a year, and so they're making that drive quite frequently. But tis kay, let me say this then, if that's normal,

that's not that far. I mean, it's not it's crazy to me to go I'm gonna drive eight hours or something, But imagine the eighteen hundred You gotta get a horse and travel in, you know, sixteen hours to a market. That's we'll imagine this. We moved to spring Hill because it's you know, yeah, spring Hill, Tennancy. It's thirty five minutes exactly to Music Row, to where I'm usually hanging out writing from my house. People are like, dude, you live way out in spring Hill. As if it's just nuts.

I have a super targeting about fifty other stores eight minutes from my driveway. And I'm supposed to feel like I live far away from something that I can't. I've tried. I've been here for eight years, and I feel like I'm in like Manhattan or something in spring Hill. But people perceive it as being a way the heck out there. I'm just thinking, Wow, it's pretty easy. It just shows you it's really all relative. Yeah, and there are probably

people here your story and go, oh, that's nothing. Yeah. Well, Mike, I was having a conversation with my father in law yesterday. Um, my wife and I are both from the same town. Um, so my father in law was telling me about um stories he heard about our hometown and like the forties and stuff, and there was no road to get to Lacrete.

You literally had to take a boat down the Peace River and it would come twice a month, I think, and it would drop off food and I mean everything that people would need to survive, and then people would also export, so like every two weeks, the boats would be going in and out of Lacrete and uh, and that was normal. Though my point is even to him, then that was probably normal. Yeah, And that's the thing. Minnight's moved up there because it was so um what's

the word secluded? Yeah, and now that there's a paved road going all the way there. Like my father in law yesterday was talking about how Lacrete is not that secluded anymore compared to that's a good stereotype for minunites, seclusion. They try hard. No matter where do you find minnites, it will be in these obscure areas to try and

escape the world. So that's kind of the reason we're from Lacrete is because minnit's went there originally because there as no road, you know what, Nobody could get to you and you couldn't get to any Maybe that's why I we live in spring Hill. We're trying to escape. Ye're according to the people here, you're secluded where you live. Now, Wow, I mean I could do this for hours, But let

me talk about sleep number for one second. So if you've spent any time listening to me jibber jabber, you probably have heard me talk about sleep number and how my sleep number bed has improved my sleep quality. Yes, so, yes, it's true. My sleep number setting is a thirty. That's right. Maybe you've considered a sleep number bed and thought to yourself. I don't know if I can afford this, but can

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store near you. I remember when you guys came in on the show. First time. I didn't I knew you had a song, and I was like, I like the song, and you came in and we were talking about pop culture references and you guys just didn't know them. And you weren't playing a part. You really just didn't know them because you didn't grow up with I guess it wasn't even a radio signal, did you guys pick up?

There was not? When did that start happening? Um? We got FM radio on the year two thousand, we got pop radio on the year two thousand, and it's not even pop. It's like an amalgamation of tons of different things that are not country, if that makes sense. So was that a big shot to the system of town

where there's this it's the double music man? I mean, miss reward to go back to our shop teacher, he wrote in my report card that year to my parents, and Brad did not get much accomplished, you know, blah blah blah, blah blah. Basically I was sitting around the radio the whole time, and I was listening to smash Mouth and Green Day and Ever Clear. But does that start up these creative juices? Though? I wonder when you're hearing this stuff and it's like, WHOA, the music can

do this? Curtis, every once in a while we'll hear a demo and be like, hey, that reminds me you're doing that. Every Clear kind of thing with your vocal and yeah, there's there's inspiration there for sure. I can just imagine you only have a few records and then all of a sudden, through the through the air comes a whole new sound. Yeah. The thing is, though, and this isn't a suck up to country radio. Even with that,

I still would want to hear more country music. And we got Columbia House, and I was a penny yeah dude. And then I get all my friends to buy the five that I need to pay for, and then i'd sign them up and I ended up getting a hundred and ten CDs and I never are paid for one of them, which is horrible because now we want everybody to pay for our music. But anyway, I would still just get Diamond Rio c ds in black Hawk and Shenandoa and any bands with harmonies. Um, even though we

had that kind of radio. So that's why I still didn't immerse myself fully in the pop scene. I guess, well, we weren't really encouraged to listen to that's true that radio station either. Yeah, discouraged would be a better word. But who wasn't We had a cassette that somebody recorded smash Mouth onto author? Did you do that? Probably? I found it in our RV and me and Jordan Schmidt listened to what's the song all Star? We listened to it when we were camping one weekend. So is that

like having a Playboy? Pretty much? Our mom and dad gone, yes, Okay, put the cassette in, let's listen to smash Mouth. Yes. A lot of kids in Nashville or church kids, right, a lot of country guys, and they'll be like, man, I know how you grew up. Man. I was only allowed to listen to Christian music growing up, which is hlarious because we were not allowed like all the Christian rock music and stuff like Michael W. Smith or we weren't supposed to listen to that stuff because it was

too much too modern. Yeah, so how did you end up here? Because all the things are working against that, All the things are working against you being here and making music that is contemporary sounding. Yeah, here's this sounds fake, but this is the absolute truth of how we got here. Our dad was pulling the engine out of a white tractor, piece of junk tractor, and a guy called named bow Loser, who was a scam artist out of Nashville here and

he called our phone number. He found us on MP three dot com if you remember that website, and he asked my dad for sixty thousand bucks cash and said, if you give me sixty grand, I can make your boys in a big stars. There's a guy out on tour with the Dixie Chicks right now, and he loves your band. He's gonna produce your boys and he's going to produce a record on him. And our dad always says, if he could have seen the tractor working on he

never would ask for sixty grand. But either way, I got the wheels turning, and mom and dad ended up saying, maybe these boys should be going to Nashville to record. And we went down here and spent a fraction of that in two thousand and started making records down here. So because the guy put the bubble into your parents head, they thought, well, if someone's trying to scam us because they could be good enough, maybe they are good enough.

Pretty much. That's that's a that's a bold move on their part to go, all right, this is different for everybody, but you need to get down and be where you can create. I mean, our dads straight up, bet the farm. He literally I went to the bank and took a line of credit like a loan against our farm, and spent that I think it was thirty some thousand bucks. Yeah, with flights and hotels and everything. Yeah. Yeah, I mean

you feel some pressure when that happens. We were too young to know that we should, but later on in life I definitely did, and we paid him back. Our talent is really supportive. We do a CD release concert, Curtis ro to the dirt bike down Main Street with ads in the Farmer's Day parade. Um. We we ended up getting a computer at one point and we had

a program called print Shop. I don't know if you remember that, but I designed a poster and I stuck it to the side of my dirt bike and I advertised for the CD release concert and drove it in the parade. I think we should still do that, like Curtis on dirt Bike on music through advertising our new records amazing. If you go home now to your hometown, do you have to fly to Edmonton and drive eight hours? Well, I make you go home that often? Do you once

a year? Super lucky and your wives are from home? Mine isn't yours? Is, So you met her at home and she moved down here. That's correct, Wow, that's it. Were you married when she moved down here? Yeah? Yeah, we got married and uh a few months later we moved down here. Actually, how how old did you get married? I was twenty two, I think too terribly young. I was nineteen when you got married. Yeah, we were sixteen when we met. And where did you meet her? At

a music festival? She was in our autograph line. I signed an eight by ten for her. Where and what what town did you meet her? Presbyterous, British Columbia, which is a suburb of Fort Saint John which the music festival was held at the Blueberry Bible Camp. It was called the Blueberry Bible Camp Gospel Jamboree. And she was the hottest girl there by far. Now if you were twenty five will be a different story. I would go, hey, why are you trying to hook up with people? One?

But you're sixteen? Yeah, we were just kids. Yeah, we're hanging out and we started talking and then we started dating after we returned seventeen. But how far? Why does she live? She lived five hours away, three miles, so I would drive. I sold cars for a living. So I started selling trucks and cars when I was seventeen. So on Saturday's at three, I'd get off work and then i'd drive. I'd get to her house by about eight or nine, and then Sunday I did have to

leave to be back for work on Monday. I mean, don't you just go ahead and get married because you want to stay gas At that point it was financially a great decision. But sometimes I went along to keep right awake on the road. That's true. You'd ride with him, Yeah, you stopped car and run circles. One time I dated a girl. She said like two hours away in northern Arkansas, and nobody wanted to date me, right, I mean, I'm

a real treat, as you can see. Uh. So I I would drive, and I would stay until like ten o'clock and have to drive home. But I would stop the car and then run circles and then jump back in the car and drive for a get longer because without falling asleep, stick your out the window. You know, I can't imagine the sunflower seeds, man, you ever eat those while you're driving? That's that's the best thing for me. When I proposed to my wife. Um, well, she wasn't

my wife at the time. So anyway, when I proposed to my girlfriend, I I was running out of time. We were about to go on tour for six months and we kind of talked about getting married, so it was kind of obvious. I was trying to do, you know, this artistic, creative way, and it wasn't. It just wasn't. The ring didn't make it in time for when I had all scheduled. Anyway, I had like one day left to surprise her, and I already asked her dad's permission,

so I left our house at midnight. I drove through the night, but I got so tired that I pulled over at this parking lot in a in the town that has a gas station in between, and I, um pulled over there and I fell asleep. And I woke up literally at the exact time that allowed me to get to her house one minute before her dad's alarmed.

I knew her dad's alarm went off at six am, and I knew I needed to sneak into the house before six with my guitar, get up in her bedroom and sing when you say nothing at all to wake her up, which is how I proposed her. You know, I'm nineteen. This is romantic because I could get when you say nothing at all sounds amazing at six am

when you haven't talked to anybody for five hours. So I get to her houses like five fifty six, and I'm getting out there and I accidentally smoked my guitar against They live in this log cabin, and I smoked against the ceiling when I was trying to get into the room, and you like, you scratched, like you just had stock of the guitar, was like, and then string is just super flat. And uh. She was sharing the bed with her sister, which I obviously didn't only like

how to sleep over there? Both blonde, and I'm like, shoot, I have to make sure I proposed to the right girl at this moment time. Thankfully I did, and at like five fifty nine she said yes. And then this alarm clock starts ringing through the house and her dad yelled something in German because we all grew up speaking German, right, so he says, oh, bah, it just means I come on or something, and that's how it all went down. I just love that when you propose. There was another

girl laying that, which was great. You got to share her excitement with you know, right away, showing engagement ring to somebody, which is super useful. And you guys learned German before English. Yeah, do you ever dream in German? Now? I've never been asked that. Man. The truth is I I learned English first. I was the last kid of six kids. Um, so all the kids went to English schools.

There's a lot of English in our home by the time I was born, So yeah, we we were considered anglelanda, which is a German word for English speakers, because our dad because of how it's kind of like an offensive term. It's like, if you're in Anglanda, then you're not really accepted in the German Mennonite community. Like in our town there's German churches and English churches, and the English ones are pretty considered incredibly liberal, even though they're still Mennonite.

It's just like you're supposed to speak German. Everything should always be German. So once you get to school, you get in trouble for speaking German. So the trick is you learned German all your life until you know you're in school, and then the teachers really trying and teach you English at that point. So now my wife and I just used German to like keep secrets from the kids and um say funny stuff when people are around that we aren't allowed to sail out. Back to my question,

do you have a dream in German? Still? You never to fall back and you're like, wow, that's crazy. I can't prove that. I don't know how to know. I've never dreamed in German. I don't dream in like sound, so I don't know. You don't have conversations while you sleep like in your head. I do. I talked to talk to people in my dreams all time. I don't dream very much, to be honest, I dream a lot before I go to bed, and that's all in English. Do you ever think in German all the time? Yeah?

I wish I could thinking in the language. I'm trouble thinking in English. Man. YouTube now Musically, because you play the little thing, yeah, the mandolin? Is that what you play all the time? No? I I started playing. I started off playing guitar and then I learned mandolin later on. And so you you play the guitar like hold the guitar, I'm like the stereotypical lead singer that has the guitar sometimes for fun, but I'm not really a guitar player.

Why don't you sing? Do you sing? I sing background? Balls? I mean, but you don't sing lead at all? Ever? No, I used to. I used to lead on one song, but I just could not remember the words. Would be like yelling me, the yelling the lyrics into my ear line by line, line by line, and I just like I got it probably of the time. So I just I just sing background. But you have no interest to be the lead singer. Ever, No, No, I just I don't.

I would be a terrible rhythm guitar player. Just you look at a band of the drummers, bassis, really, just look at a four piece band. Just put it in my head. I would be a terrible rhythm guitar player because I would want to be the lead singer. I'm I'm an absolute type A. But let's say I can't, then I probably want to be the drummer because I can actually do my own thing. I can have my own you know, people will, people will look at me. Listen. I'm just searching for love. Everything I do. I need

people to pay because I need love. Right and then at least on the base. I can get a little funky moving, I can dance. But the rhythm guitar, you know, that's probably the most importan didn't yet thankless position. I love playing rhythm guitar. And that's why I say that, because you must not need to be thanked. You must have been loved a lot as a kid. That's what we all and again, that's that's why I'm coming back to.

He doesn't need that extra attention, doesn't need to be the lead singer, doesn't need to like you're good, you're healthy. It's your heart's healthy. I will say, though. He does play the mandolin, and it is like the signature of our sound. Everybody, you know, everybody knows that we're not a band that has drums, electric guitar and bass. They know that we have mandolins and bantos, which he also

plays and all that cool stuff. You, on the other hand, with your muscles and your lead singer, is that what happened there? Huh? They just swelled up on me. I'm talking about that. I mean, you're in the front. What what do you say? Type A? Is that like leader? Leader? It's like I am here, like look at me? I got something to say, I'm gonna lead this thing. I would definitely only be um. That's what's been so healthy

for me about having kids. It's because I definitely was always like and am very much the leader and in charge. And even now, if we finish the show, I call home thinking some for some reason, I still think like I will call home and say, how this conversation is going to go. And I'm on speaker phone with my wife and both kids and hey, guys, here's what happened today. And it's been an amazing transformation. How it's like never about me at all, and it's just me listening to

them telling me how cool they are. That's been very healthy, like amazing. Do your family, I think you think you're cooler now? My kids, no, no. I we begged them to come to the rhyme and the other day because we were playing it and we were so pumped to be playing it again. And my wife's like, hey, kids, we can go for a cool dinner downtown see daddy play. And I kid, you know, my nine year old said, could we just order in some Mexican listen to the CD that I said, Drew, you don't need to listen

to the CD. You could just stay at home and have fun. So they stay at home and did not go. But at least he was giving you a bit like he was still gonna listen to you, like, don't don't be lost on that all sympathy. Yeah, he was still throwing your bone there. He's still going, you know, at love, like, we'll still listen to you. We just don't want to take the eight hour trip into town. Yeah, yeah, the thirty five minutes. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. But we

did get on Madden on the video game. You're playing the game. Yeah, And um so now my kids here High Valley while playing mad and oh you mean you guys are on the game. Yeah. Yeah, So they think that's cool, and their friends think that's cool. And now if I go to football practice, there will be more kids that think it's cool. That is pretty cool. I think it's cool, Like you're cooler than me right now because they're not mad at look at that. So what's

happening right now with you guys? Are you guys that pick new songs? Is that where we are? We're picking songs all the time right now, we're listening to listen all all of Brad's hits and uh, oh you get a pick. Soel what if you what if it's coming to you right cards And it's like, what do you think about this song that I wrote your big brother Brad or the song that some mother dude wrote? Do

you know? I mean, I honestly, I just listened to the songs and and uh, I mean, as you know, even just based on the last thirty minutes, we come from a very unusual place, um, geographically, and and even just the way we we grew up. You know, we think about songs. Yeah, so Brad understands that better than any songwriter in Nashville and in the world. And so we're looking for specific ideas and messages in our songs and even topics that we avoid because they just are

not relevant to us. Um. And it's hard for any other songwriters to identify with that and actually hit the nail on the head. So I mean, I I listened to I listened to all the songs. You know, I like the outside songs more. I would say, then, curtis what you would think would be the opposite, And I'd be like, I only like my own songs. But I'm

not stupid. Obviously, Nashville has amazing songwriters, and I'm gonna love I love Tom Douglas, and I love Ashley Goreley, and I love a lot of these amazing John Knight, I love their songs. But he's right, it's it's tough when people find out what we're about. Like right now, on the pitch sheet that every songwriter gets in this town, it says High Valley looking for singles, Faith, Family, and Farming.

And you'd be shocked at the amount of like songs about a guy reading a Bible while riding a tractor down the field. You know, it's like just pretty recipe. Faith, Family and farming is a perfect recipe for just cheeseball material um and uh, I mean those are our ingredients, but we just avoid cheeseball like the plague. So um. It's kind of like if you knew how to make brownies and other people said, oh, there's sugar and flour and eggs in there and co don't forget Yeah, and

it just was wrong. So I'm not saying we won't find and we have and we will. Yeah, we have cut some some great outside songs, but it's the amount of weird stuff we weed through to hear them is is a pretty bad percentage. So the order of your song, well, She's with Me the last single, Yeah, make your mind us first, Okay, so make your mind She's when we play some chess with me. So we played this earlier.

From when this song finishes, it's running the topch in tow now it's got to feel like an eternity, like you come off your highest song ever. Now you just gotta sit for a minute. I don't know. It actually doesn't feel that way because, um, we were just when was our last show in Chicago, like two weeks ago, like like shake, do you guys play that? No? This was a at Joe's the week we were there. They

still played it seventy five times that week. So it's just like kind of still it still feels like it's building momentum even though it's not. I know, on the chart, once you've gone down for three weeks, you're you're off. But in reality, like the ends of it is still tons. Well that's cool then, so it's kind of like it's living a second life right now. Do you guys tell

each other you love each other? Yeah? Yeah, usually like every day on the phone, but yes, but but you guys have a good relationship where it's like, hey man, you know usually we tell each other we love each

other after we fight. Yeah, that's true. Which there's you know, there's I feel like in my mind and my my body, my soul that there's this meter, right and you go as high as you go low like if if if you're on this like at thermometer scale, if the middle line of zero, and you you can go up to a three on top, that means you also go down

to the three on the bottom negative three. And so I as hard as you love is as hard as you fight as and so for me, I have trouble really spreading that scale, like I don't I don't have a lot of happiness, but I don't have a lot of sadness. And I've been spending the last few years really trying to figure myself out. And it's okay to let the walls down and be a little hurt, but

that's what happens is you get to experience all that joy. Yeah, for me, I've been chasing that, And I wonder with YouTube if you do love each other so much, dude, the fights get you know, pretty brotherly, like come on, dude, like it. I'd say, they used to be way more extreme then. Now would you agree? Oh? Yeah, you getting older or you're just learning each other better. Probably both. Also, I know I used to feel so much pressure that

I don't feel anymore. But I used to feel like the type a leader provide for everybody thing, but correct me if I'm wrong. Wrong, But you would feel like it was your responsibility for you know, me to be able to provide for my family, because especially you know, like right in the beginning when I got married then or or even when it wasn't married, it was still

your responsibility to make sure that I was getting paychecks. Yeah, Like my wife and I had done good in businesses stuff before we went full time, and we've been full time for eleven and a half, Yeah, eleven and a half years since we quit our jobs to do only this. So the first year we did, UM, we took a nine and pay cut, and then UM. A couple of years later, I was like, some of the houses we had bought, I was like selling them and using that money to pay Curtis and my other brother who were

in the band at the time, and my wife. I was just going further and further in debt, and I would feel like tons of stress and it wouldn't be like I told Curtis that every day, but our fights would be more about like, let's work harder and all that kind of stuff. And in my mind, it's so that I can get this back to and even keel, And in his mind it's like, why can't this be more fun? Why is this such a stressful thing? Whereas that seems like an eternity ago because now it's been

so good for so many years. But that was that's why I wrote Cheese with Me, because my wife was there through all of that. The song says, when when my dreams were running out of road, like she was there and they were straight up running out of road, like there was nothing left. But now she's there for you know, walking the red carpets and all that kind

of stuff. And I wanted people to know when they listened to the song that she's not just a pretty face that showed up because we were on the radio. She was there and yeah, exactly when my Adam's apple was bigger than my face, Man, I look at that. That's good stuff right there. Yeah, I forgot you had a third member. That was pretty that's pretty me coming to town when you guys had that the other brother, because I would see pictures, I think even an album covered.

He have blonder hair. Yeah, yeah, short blond hair. So what happened to him? Nothing happened to him. Brad and I moved to Nashville and he did not. Oh so he was never here. Now he wanted to stay, well, he was. That was a problem is he he would have to come here for stuff, and you know, like let's say this today, Brian would have had to drive five miles one day, Steve stay in nine, didn't fly the next day, and then probably the third day would be today hanging out with you. Tomorrow he'd fly home

the day after drive home. So it's like a five day commitment to hang out with you for an hour. Whereas we can be there and we did stuff like that. There would be gigs or events or whatever we're Brian would come all the way down from our hometown. And I even did that for a period of time before I moved here. I wanted to get married first, then

I wanted to move here. So I did that for a little while, and it's it sucks like it just sucks the life out of you when you gotta spend that much time traveling for anything, awkward conversation when it goes, hey, it's not gonna work. Like he's like did he come to you? Guys? Or you guys like, man, are you tired? Like what? What? How did that? It's your brother, not

just a band made as your mode dynamic? I mean something like that is never just comfortable and feels good at all, um, because we've been doing it forever since we were like Brian was doing high valleys since he was what nine nine? Where's he on the list of age? He's right between so he's between you two. Yeah, he'd be the fifth in the family. So what's he doing now? He is? Uh, he's an I T guy. He's like a really smart computer person. He's the smartest of music too,

by the way. Smart. So he's he's an I T guy at a huge road construction company in but the company is represented all over Alberta, which is like the Texas of Canada a lot of oil. Huh isn't that right? Because friends that will go that's what they'll do, they will go. I don't know if you're familiar with b it's the day to Canadian, right, So I know all the all the yeah, all the Canada, And so I think that's why I know a bit about you guys too, because I'd be like, Hey, what's up with these guys

And she's like, oh, they're really good dudes. That she also said, man, they've changed. I guess you guys got real good You disappared and think got real good looking and came back. That would you say that's accurate? No, I've never heard that. That's amazing. Yeah. Well, they're like, I'm not sure to say thank you or be offended that we were ugly before this magical disappearance. You can't do that because I used to do that too. People be like, oh, like what do they call like your come?

What do they say you glam? What is it? A glow up? Like I'll look at the glow up. I'm like, what do you mean? He used to be ugly? You can't look at it that way. You just got look at the positive products. But people would say, yeah, hi, Valley, they've been around for a long time, been trying to make it now. Is you guys a story? While I was drawn to you guys at first because it seems like you guys are real grinders, like you spent a lot of time in town. That would be an understatement,

getting told a lot of nose Oh big time. Yeah. I mean we we got offered our first record deal in this town that we could not accept because we had just signed a different one in oh eight oh nine. Com Universal Universal offered us to development deal and O nine and you couldn't take it because we had just signed an independent record deal with a company called Centric City and Franklin, which is a great company. They're great

to us. But obviously to get on country radio in O nine would have been a lot sooner than you know, last year. Did you get out of that doo ah, yeah, just right when making mind happen really yeah, pre or post just pre We got out of it and got signed right after. But they're like, oh, come on, I can ask him. I guess yeah, you can ask him. Let's bring him in there here waiting outside. So when you get signed with Warner Brothers, Uh, that's gonna be

a cool thing, right like there, that's legitimate. Yeah, that was, I mean, that's that was a huge moment for us. I mean, and still is. We've been with Warner now for what two and a half years, A couple of years and as quick at two and a half years in my life, but um yeah, I mean that's when,

that's when the ball just started to roll. I mean, Make your Mind hit radio and uh I remember I remember playing that in Boston and uh there was like those rails right in front of the stage and people were packed against the stage in the room was full, and uh I was making my Mind was the last song and then they just screamed the lyrics as loud as they could, and uh, my mind was just blown. That was like the moment. Then we went to Orlando

and it was just happening. It was just acoustic and it happened kind of like the way it does in the movies, like the that thing you do. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of like what is going on? And that's when we got a video of it and sent it to ESPO at the label, and pretty soon they were sharing it with everybody and people say like, yeah, things have taken a while for you guys, but for us, it just felt like fast. But maybe because we had those first twenty years of super slow and we were

just so ugly. Yeah, that's what I heard. Holding you back. What's the difference in not having a record label and then getting a record label? Um, I mean especially here because we've had all kinds of like little record labels. But from that to be with warners just like, well, the first thing that is put us on the world's most beautiful bus and sent us around the country made us feel real good, like real fancy, like like do

radio tour, having the bus around. Like before having a big record deal, i'd eight, you know, two or three times at these really expensive restaurants. Now we've ate two or three hundred times, and you know what I mean, it's like you get We went to a restaurant in Denver together. Yeah, and that was no cheap, didn't. I mean I wasn't paying pin either, don't I was pulling out my credit card either, But that was do the

slow pool where you can't find your wall in time. Listen. Yeah, I'm not spending that kind of money on a work deal that's a hundred meal like and and we don't drink. Imagine if we did like that, that's where the money really goes up. We see those bills after, like those fancy dinners. It's not. I remember like calling my wife whenever I knew how much how many dollars, I just ate and like tell her and it would just like

blow both our minds. And since signed with the label, it happens so much like meals getting put on cards and and it's not even about you guys, it's about the people that you're trying to impress, like the station managers or that's who you're eating the big meals for. Yeah, if it's up to us, we're going to barbecue join having My standard is definitely no more than one fork at the table, and if it's plastic, that's usually better.

At our wedding, for our wedding dinner, for my example of what I would you know do, we had pizza and caesar salad and barbecue chicken wings. So this whole like being fancy all day, I find it hilarious. Even going to the a c MS or c M as it's awesome. But we're all people that hang out with

each other every day. But now we're all wearing these like suits that are pretty uncomfortable, and we're trying to stand the right way and have our colors the right way, and the girls are in these dresses that as much just kill them to be in, and then when it's over, everybody just goes back to normal life. It it's like, if we all decided to not try to impress each other, we could just hang out and like shorts and T shirts and by brother swimpool all that money that you

know that was exactly look at this. I feel like I've learned so much. I feel like as humans we've grown together this last hour, so much growth. Man, and not of that. Credis hasn't been smart with me the whole time, because you come into the show man, you just I'm like, I've only got a few seconds. I'm like, come on, man. Comet's trying to think about the most expensive thing on the menu in Lacreds. I'm guessing it would be a las agna. I think it's ribs at

the Country Drill. Oh yeah, that's probably sixteen bucks. No, it might be twenty five by now, Yeah, that'd be a buffet though. It's you guys, take a cow part completely. If you need to a cow, yeah, can you kill it? You know what? I um, I don't do very good with uh warm dead animals like I can still but believe and it happened in a while, completely dress a deer, real serious from Arkansas. Not anymore. Used to because it's what everyone did in my town. Okay, everybody did in

our town. But our family was the one exception. We were the family that did not hunt. Our dad was not into it. We didn't get into it really. He shot. I don't know if we're allowed to say this, are we to black bear? But that was that was out of defense. They were on our yard and like we were kids running around. He didn't want one was on our basketball court and the other was like right straight

up in our yard. I think you say that self defense human if it's self defensially, whatever you need, but never go on hunting. Never. Where I grew up, I hunted a lot. One. I didn't have a dad for most of my life. On my stepdad came in. He was big into hunting cause I was trying to find anything for us to bond over. And so even I don't like killing animals, I'm an animal guy. I don't hunt anymore. But we used to also kill a lot of animals illegally, dear, because we had to eat, and

that's how we ate a lot of food. So we had to not only shoot, kill, move, you know, dragging the deer spout the four wheeler, but we had to take it down quick, dress it quickly, and get rid of it. So because you want to get caught right, so you pulled in. We had certain garages we'd go in to back it in, hang it up, because not just because we wanted to do it, because we had to eat, and because we needed to do it fast. We wouldn't get because we didn't tag them all, you know.

You know that is like tagging in there you only get certain amount like three, and you only get certain amount of dough and says the whole thing. But I could probably still do it. I can flay a fish probably still too. I do love the idea of killing and eating an animal, like like finding your own food in that way, I think that's it's an amazing concept, and I've been able to be a part of that a couple of times, but like actually butchering, it's hard

for me. Do you guys read do you are you book? Guys? Are? Have you read Sapiens? So it's about and it's about the history of mankind and how we moved around and the things that we did, and when man started walking tall and wise so we could see more in his prey. That's why the first man stood up so he could see farther. It's pretty fascinating when you talk about this and it's you know what, it talks about these cultures that, um, you know, they just moved around. There really wasn't a home,

migrated place. Yeah, it's very nomadic all of it. What but anyway, that's a whole, other, whole other podcast. I'm pretty much like for being a country boy, I am. We're so country. We literally are from the middle of nowhere. But for whatever is and I'm pretty whoosy when it comes to that kind of like manly man uh hunting. You look the part though, man with the muscles your chin did along, he did. Well. Listen, you guys are definitely you're definitely country. Like the only thing not that

country about you would be probably brad hair do. Yeah, pretty pretty fancy, I mean fancy here, a little gel in there. Yeah, Okay, so it's just large. It's just large from the day, whatever it takes, it's all organic. Well, listen, I'm looking forward to here on what you guys have to do next. You know, I'm fans of you guys. You guys actually fund to be around. Are you gonna be on the on like any tour dates anytime soon?

Are you on the road? I'm doing stand up the rest of the year, all the way until the end of December, mid December. Um, maybe our puzzle. We're doing the old dominion thing all the way until December. Are We don't end up in comedy clubs very often, but it could happen performing. I don't need a your theaters clubs. Come on, don't insult me. That's what I mean. That's what I said this interview. Just like the biggest clubs. You can imagine the biggest, coolest with the nicest people too.

Oh yeah, it's funniest people. Don't insult me. Um, Curtis did say that we should wear red jogging suits to this interview. You know, let me say this about plant shows, by the way, not to digress from your mediocre joke. Um to and I just tell a joke. No, he did the red that was truth. He did that. It was his joke. I forget that we've played shows together. Yeah, and we've played Open Water Ship. That's right. You guys

played right before us the most beautiful festival. You were wearing a red jumpsuit, right, yeah, I wear red and Eddieward's green. The rest of my band wars black. I read everything like that's that's my thing. It's like I wore black sneakers to fit in with your red hosh DoD. That's so cool. Thanks. I wore flip flops today, is that? Okay? Is the first interview I've ever done in flip flops. I'm not wearing pants, so garious, gonna be table. Oh man, it's just got real. But I think now you guys

will probably you think you guys to play later than us. Now, No, it's such an awkward question, man, Well what time are we talking about? Well, we would if I'm done to my booking agent right now then yes, if I'm done to you, no, no, I mean we would play the five thirty or six pm spots on a festival, which is right when it's gonna do like a pretty good spot, like the third from the last. Yeah, you know, see, we'd probably play the exact same we'd probably play on

different days because we're always third from the last. Right now, it's us then whoever's almost the headliner and then the headliner. Because for us it was us, then Old Dominion and then like Luke or someone like that. Yesterday was us, Chris Jansen, then Chris Young. So there you go. We never will buy me a boat, or else we would have been later. I wonder if they'd put us ahead

of you or behind here. Probably what happens if the next summer and we'll find out what happens if you're agent calls and says, hey, y'all are on at four or fifteen hive valleys on. You're not doing any festivals this year. Raging idiots don't exist anymore. Yeah, I take that back. No, no, no, I'm wrong. We're playing too. We're playing the first one we ever played. We got booed off the stage. It was just Eddie and myself and this fight. It was then Shyenne Wyoming, a frontier game.

Oh yeah yeah, And it was brutal. It was intense. We didn't know we were getting ourselves into. We had just started. We weren't even read jumpsuits yet, We're up there, just two dudes. It was like when you were still ugly too. Yes, I was super ugly right before I went to my glow up. I'm literally gonna call Lindsay after this and be like, so, what is this whole disappearing and getting pretty thing? I want to know about it.

And I think she was just one of the mini voices that were like, oh, those dudes, they're they've been around for a while, but now they're like good looking and stuff. So maybe we wore too many like gap T shirts back in the day. That's probably what happened. What's awesome is Brad started working out a number of years ago and now people think we're the really fit band and I haven't changed anything, So I'm glad the frontman. Those sets the tone. Yeah, guilty by Association. Have you

guys played China before? Yeah, we're playing it again. Coming up the Outlaw Saloon. It's smoking inside. Wow. Yeah, that's intense. D It's kind of like a little club. Yeah, yeah, I don't play we don't, you know, even the raging idiots when the little clubs, you know, we're playing. We're playing. Okay, get this, We're only doing two shows. We're playing the outdoor stage and I already a music festival heard of it. It's us in Dustin Lynch and like little Oozy, right,

like a bunch of rappers who knows? And then um, we're playing Shin in Frontier Days, but we're playing the second from the last. Who's last? Well here's the thing, No, but it's it's really not going to be our crowd. So it's one I like Shyannel and our show is number one there. But if you're gonna come to Frontier Days to watch Toby Keith who's playing, there's main act. You're probably not a big raging idiots fan. By the way, they're probably a lot of raging idiots fans as in

just fans. We have like three songs Chick fil A, But it's Sunday. We have Nomas Day. You know, we don't have a bunch of songs. We just do funny shows. But yeah, it's Toby Keith is the headliner. We play it before him and then ned La do plays So it's a cowboy night. Yeah, that's pretty cowboy. Are you gonna do your whole what they said you needed to do in Nashville? The belt, buckle and cowboy. We're wearing the jumpsuits. We stayed true who we are. That's good.

We gotta be who you are man, And if you're authentic and you're good. That's the recipe. We're just not good. What was the other thing? Don't kill don't kill animals or kids? No, it's I think it was he Listen, we've spent an hour hour? How long we do? How long has been? That's a long time. That's a long time. What's typical? Not this long? Cool? Yeah, if you hit the hour mark, it's pretty solid. So you did an hour and ten lost track. Um, I'm looking forward to

hearing what you guys to do next. I like you guys. You guys are fine, and you guys are I. I got to ask all the questions that I wanted to know in this so I feel like next time when you come on the show, already know a lot of the answers, so we don't have to spend ten minutes going We probably don't even have to show up. No, yeah, I'll just tell your story. But like, hey, they we're gonna come in, but instead I'm gonna tell you everything I know about them and play the song. Alright, So

High Valley, thank you for for coming in. What episodes might one episode one twenty from High Valley and now we will see you next time. Thanks everybody,