And now here they are, Nick and Sue on Chatterbox. When the stars talk, they talk to Nick and Sue. And welcome back to the Chat Box Redux Podcast with me Nick and today my guest is Joe Hermes. We're Chatterbox giving you all you need to know about musical entertainment. Oh yeah! Chatterbox! And now on Chatterbox UK, we're just lucky enough to welcome Joe Hermes. Joe, welcome to Chatterbox. How are you, sir? Hey, good, Nick. Thanks for having me. It's great to meet you, and I love
the new song. It really rocks, so I really like it. Thank you. Talk a bit about that, but you're in the UK anyway at the moment. Unfortunately, although I can turn this show around really quick, it won't hit the first stations till Sunday, and I see you've still got to... concerts over here, which is a shame. Tell us about your tour in the UK and if we can expect to see you, you know, some more dates or we can see you next year or something. Oh, yeah, yeah, no worries.
We've already we've already been picked up for a tour for February and March for the Boys Life Tour. We're going to do an acoustic opening set on that run. So that announcement just came out. So, yeah, this this will certainly help hopefully get some folks over to that tour. But yeah, I know we've been in the UK for a few weeks doing a doing a run of shows and up and down the. Up and down the countryside, and it's been it's been a pretty cool ride. We've seen some cool
venues. That's it. I've been looking at your website and we do your social media at the end, but anyone's interested. It gives all your whole
section there for shows. unfortunately when this goes out we would just miss uh but the rodeos birmingham uh that's 21st 22nd of november uh london huck's hotel tell us about some of the other cities and towns in the uk you visited tell us about some of the towns you've been to and people you met and stuff like that what's it been like coming around the uk well yeah we got in on a thursday morning um which was about
2 a .m our time uh in the state so that was kind of a a trip and We got into the hotel and got up for rehearsal with the band. That Friday morning, like it would have been the equivalent of rehearsing at like four thirty in the morning our time. And that was that was wild. But then we took off straight from there down to South Wales and played a show and it's at a bar called McCann's and called The Pit, which is underneath. And
it's a very cool small venue. But the folks there It was the South Wales Country Music Festival is what it was. And the folks there were awesome. They were they were chanting my name and calling for encores and singing along to the songs. I was blown away. Me and the guys were just like, this is awesome. You know, to come all the halfway around the world and and have that as your first show on a Friday night. I mean, we're all zombies. We're like. We don't even know where we're at.
You know, we've been traveling for like 48 straight hours basically and it was it was a lot of fun and then we turned right around and hit the Hit the show in is it a half putney in in london there and did a showcase Yeah, the half moon half moon Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was that
was really cool. There was a lot of a lot of folks there and the style of how the audiences will listen to the setups on the songs and the stories and it's it's really a dream come true for artists like me because the storytelling is such a big part of the music you know it kind of takes you on the ride from start to finish on the set and when you feel like they're listening and you can really get into the details of you know it's it's very rewarding yeah well i'm looking
forward to uh Yeah, it's not something that I would have thought would be a great fit, but by doing the acoustic sessions, I mean, that's how we do it in Nashville at the like the writers rounds and I mean, it's really just the grit in my voice is the only rock thing, you know, because the acoustics aren't they're not all distorted. So there's a lot of good intricate guitar playing happening. So I think it's going to go pretty well. I hope so. I mean, we're we're
in it for 26 shows with them. So we'll we'll
figure it out. well we've spoken to people that have supported boys life before in fact we spoke to people this year that have done some bits with them i think it was in ireland and places but regardless it doesn't matter um point is i don't think they would get you guys doing stuff like that if it wasn't going to work it must I suppose, I don't want to say Teenie Bob or a boy band, but obviously they've got their followers and I guess they want the people that are supporting
them and opening for them, I guess they want that to be a success and that's what they think is going to work. They've obviously heard you know what you do, so that's what's going to work. There are going to be some big venues there and some big audiences there to get to know you, so yeah, there you go. They know what they're doing. They've been in it a long time, so yeah.
That's kind of what I was thinking. I'm just the new guy in and I know one thing for sure, we're going to make a splash one way or the other, for better or for worse. It'll be fine. Mind you, listen, if you're the first guys to be booed off of the boys' life, so well, it doesn't make the papers, it's fine. No, you'd be good. It's all well planned, I know. They've got a great
team there, so yeah. it seems like they do you're one of you're one of many people i don't think we're in double figures yet but quite yeah quite a few that have have definitely opened and supported them that we chatted to so yeah you'll be good and i would like you to come and get yourself back here in february and tell us all about the 26 dates and we'll talk some more then about that side of things so that'd be nice and then you could tell me what you're planning for the
rest of 2026 you know in your own you know in your normal rock star as it is. So we'll chat about that in February for that side of things. Right. We got a new single and it rocks. It really is quite something. Tell us, tell us about that. Tell us how it come about. Yeah. What's the story behind it? Real good, bad one, but it ain't a bad song until it's great. So what's the story
there? So if anybody's been following Joe Hermes music, you know, we write a lot of songs that are deep, heartfelt, got a lot of emotion in
them. This is not one of those songs this song is just upright and rowdy and about having fun having the having your your mates come into the pub and you feel the music going and you know, you're in for a real good bad one tonight because tomorrow's gonna hurt and It's just it's simply that easy and it's a song that I felt like would go good on the jukebox You can crank it up and everybody's Rocking having a good time uh you've hit one country chart or another tell us about
the songs some of the songs that have done that i think you made 30 something or so somewhere tell us about that yeah we've had um you know we've like i've had a couple of uh top fives and like some smaller charts and uh i was underselling you sorry yeah well and that's just that was like in the like uh christian country charts i think we hit number four on that with a song called used to be me and that one also made it to like in the low 40s in the music road chart,
which is obviously a much bigger chart. Yeah. But we've had, you know, we've had I think four songs make it make it into the top 80s so far. I mean, I'm a new artist and I know it takes a while to get your footprint. And especially as an independent, you know, I mean, you're just trying to figure it all out yourself and you don't always know who to, who and how to get things out there. So, um, I thought that was,
I thought it did all right. I mean, it's been received well at the shows and when we play them, the songs connect really well. So we know they're good songs and, and, um, I think it's just a matter of getting out and playing it for more
people. It takes two to tangle And two to present a radio show So here's Nick and Sue Your musical duo Now, looking back, it looks like, let's just take it back to lockdown, let's say, it looks like that was a very creative time for you, and it looks like that's probably when you found out, I mean, obviously you always wanted to be a singer -songwriter, whatever, and you did say you were before that, but it looks like that probably with your creativity, that's probably
where you got, worked out what direction you were definitely going in maybe, and looking back, it looks like you did a lot of creativity, and the Joe Hermes we see today, probably was starting to be created during that time, I would say. So tell us all about the lockdown and how it
was for you. Yeah, so I just had a handful of songs I wrote myself and then I was playing a show in my hometown and a guy from Nashville had come in and asked me to come down and cut demos in Nashville and I agreed and so that was in 2019 and we cut the first EP and everything was like just launching like first two shows like first show was 150 paid tickets the second one was 250 and then and it was like oh this is great you know and and then all of a sudden
the covid shut down and i thought well that was a short run um but it allowed me to meet my mentor and producer dale oliver because he was pulled off the road as well because of covid And so the silver lining was we got together and started writing and Dale is such a phenomenal producer and we work well together and we've been developing the sound as you picked up on. You know, you don't really kind of know where you're going
to end up. Heck, I don't know where I'll be in two years from now, but I know that sound is kind of a constant evolution. I mean, the stories like what's coming for me is the common thread, but how we package it and how we put it out there, you know, shifts around a little bit. But no matter what we've done, there's always been rock and country elements to it. So we've kind of created our own lane of gunpowder country is what we call it. That's good. That's great. It
is a really great night. I also see on your website, if I click on music, we've got a thing there saying best of Joe Hermes. Now, is that like a greatest best of album that you brought out or is that just some songs you just put together? I see it's 30, 31 songs, is it? A whole load of songs there. So, yeah. I mean, is that something people download or is it just free them to listen to? Yeah, they can just save it. They can just
save that Spotify playlist. We just wanted to have a one a playlist with all of the songs that we put on Spotify. And that was how the team, the marketing team did it. They just did a little best of Joe Hermas. And that way, if you put, you know, press play on there, you can kind of hear everything over the last five years we've been putting out. And 31 songs there. Yeah, something like that. So, yes, quite. I see. Yeah, 31. Okay, right. Let's talk about albums, something like
that. Album -wise, have you done any albums yet? Have we got any in the pipeline? What's going on that way? Well, we've kicked it around. We kicked it around last year. We went on a big slew of singles. Instead of... We had so many...
Songs that we have been writing and that we just decided we were gonna do a big singles push and so about every six weeks we were putting a song out last year and I think once we started shifting directions to more of this like Current sound of like a honky -tonk feeling and a real good
bad one. I Think we probably got an EP in the works for that We've got about three or four more songs that are right in this lane And we're getting ready to get into writing sessions again here in December and January So it'll be really interesting to see if we I think we'll probably stick with this sound for a little bit and and try to get out whatever else we need to get out of it and But you never know I mean I was a big fan of some of the stuff we put out last year
with like baptized by the south and walk away whiskey I thought those had really cool like a new southern rock Country vibe and they did they did well, but it seems like a lot of people are hearing things nostalgic things in this new sound like Reference, you know to like Toby Keith and and and some of those late 90s early 2000s, you know honky tonk Stuff and it and it comes across great live as well the bands We love playing
it live. There's so much energy so I wouldn't be surprised if we don't do at least an EP with, you know, this sound here. That's nice. Absolutely. What I would normally do about the stage for the interview, but I think we've more or less covered it. I would normally, because I've already invited you back and, you know, talk about things in February. What we would normally do, I'd normally ask you, so, hey Joe, tell us what you'll be
doing. And if I was to ask you what you, if you come back in six months time, what would you
like to be telling me you've achieved? But basically, the yes yeah it's tough tough tough to be away from the the family and stuff overseas but i have a feeling you know it's going to be you know it's going to be uh it's going to be worth it and we've already got a bunch of may dates as well uh on the book so it's so basically like in the uk yeah yeah it's all in the uk so three of three of the next uh five months is basically
uh all uk Sure. What about Europe? Any plans for Europe or have you already done a few there? I'm open. I mean, we went to Finland in September with my buddy Yuka and played some shows and I know they want to get us back over there for a bunch of shows in August next year as well. But other than that, I am totally down to go all over Europe because there seems to be a lot
of good original music outlets. Over here that well, I need to go to start taking these stages down Anyway, you got a you got a great website
here. It's Joe Hermes music .com and Yeah, I've been well I've had it on my other screen for since I've been chatting to you, but it's got everything people need uh even says a whole whole load of stuff about you uh yeah we've got them 31 tracks that are on spotify and as you said you click the play button you get all 31 of them here uh pictures your updates of your shows are going to be there um yeah and i thought i saw somewhere i thought i saw you had some radio
interviews up or something you had interviews up i thought i saw but yeah cool yeah We've been doing quite a few of them. I'm not sure what all they have on the press release. There's a press release or press link there on the website as well. I don't know if they've got any radio on there or not. Well, I'm not sure that you get this anyway. So, you know, so hopefully that get up there as well. And then you've got my contact details for, you know, when you're back
and we sort out the other chat. I know you might be using Heart Media. Great. If you do, you know, we work with them all the time, but if not. We'll have our contact details in the future. So that's good. So let's talk about this. Yeah. Joe Hermes music dot com. Hermes being J. Sorry. Hermes being H E R M E S. Just in case I'm not pronouncing it right in my English accent. Joe Hermes dot com. Joe Hermes music dot com. And what I was going to say is it's got your links to all your
other social media here. It's got your Facebook, Instagram, YouTube channel. Spotify, TikTok, so anyone wants to know anything any other way they can find you on social media it is JoeHermesMusic
.com it's all at the top of the page just click on it straight there done Joe it's been great meeting you and yeah looking forward to that it's a big step when we chat the next time this has been quite quite great you know you you get into the UK and doing these great days but I think yeah I think it's going to be amazing and then May as well. So we've got a lot to talk about next year and I'm quite excited by it. So yeah, let's chat then. Awesome. I'm looking
forward to it, Nick. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming on. You've been listening to the Chatterbox Redux podcast with me, Nick. Thank my special guest who was Joe Hermes. Email address is nickelbum at myyahoo .com. Alternatively, our postal address is P .O. Box 26, the old Observer Building, Telford Road, St. Leonard's -on -Sea, East Sussex, England, TN 38 9 LZ. We'd like to thank you for your company and look forward to welcoming you again for another
Chatterbox Redux podcast again soon. Take care, bye bye. This is Nick and Sue, a chatterbox giving you all you need to know about music!