Interview: Brothers Osborne

Brothers Osborne haven't been in a hurry to release an album. Although their debut single came out in 2013, they are only just building to the release of their debut album Pawn Shop. However, having been nominated for a Grammy with their third single Stay A Little Longer, they are clearly destined for great things as their career gets fully under way. We caught up with T.J. Osborne to see how he is feeling about the impending release.

Hi T.J., are you having a good day?

I'm doing well. It's about 70 degrees in Nashville. It's T Shirt weather! I don't know if I should be alarmed that we are heading for the apocalypse, or if I should just head for a swimming pool! Either way I am enjoying it.

Congratulations on the Grammy nomination! How does it feel?

It feels pretty surreal to be honest with you. It's every musician's dream to be there. There are a lot of talented, hard working people who have sadly never had that acclaim. For us to have been able to be nominated so early on in our career, it just doesn't seem real. Certainly to say it's an honour is an understatement.

Are you optimistic for the win?

I am not just being humble, but I don't think it's possible. There is Little Big Town's Girl Crush which isn't going to be really hard to beat. That song is a once every ten years kind of song. If we lose to that, I definitely would have zero animosity or frustration. Beyond that we stand a good chance, but you never know! I didn't expect to be nominated for a Grammy, so it's great just to have that.

Pawn Shop, your debut album, is finally coming out. How does that feel?

It's really relieving to get that out. It's crazy to have your whole life's work summed up into one album. You put your first record out there, it is your big introduction to everything. It took us a few years to get it released. It was frustrating at times, but it really allowed us to steer the ship a little bit. We were able to look back and be honest about the material we'd written. About four or five of the songs on the record we only wrote in the last year. I'm really happy with it. It is nice to have some of your songs out there. We have fans who have been coming to the shows for years, so it is nice to give them some more songs. We put out an EP a couple of years ago and five songs can only get you so far.

The album contains two of your three singles to date. Why did all three not make the cut?

Let's Go There didn't go there. When we put that out there it was cool for us, but we wanted the material on the record to have some meat on them. It didn't just have to be songs you know on there. We recorded Rum about three or four years ago, but I think we hit the nail on the head with that one. We did a really good job of recording that song. It still is what we do, so it made sense to put it on there. Stay A Little Longer is a song we recorded recently. That was certainly going on there as it's out current single and the one we got a Grammy nomination for. Beyond that it was just obvious to pick the songs that really set us apart from other bands in town. We wanted it to be unique to us and I am proud of what we have achieved.

The video has been garnering really positive feedback for the video. What was the thought behind it?

We wanted it to be about everything. If you are putting a commercial single out there you can be limited time wise, Stay A Little Longer is actually a little on the long side. The edited version is even on the long side. We thought about how we could make a video that could make sure a little more is said. We didn't want a video that does just exactly what it says in the song as it gives no reason to watch the video. Me and my brother sat down and looked at concepts. What resonated with Stay A Little Longer, and why it resonated with people so well, is that's it about the in between. It's not about being in love or having your heartbroken, it's about the weird in between area when you don't know if it is love or heartbreak. It is something that everyone has felt. It's really frustrating to feel. This is something that is very unifying amongst all of us, whether or not as a person you agree with our representations of sexuality or inter-raciality. Love is challenging for people. So we wanted to tell the story, so we picked five different couples and wanted it to be a different look. It doesn't matter if you are straight, gay, inter-racial, we all go through it together. It is universally felt. We didn't want it to be about anything. Every couple in that video is a real couple. We didn't want it to be contrived, we wanted it to be real. Some of them are attractive, but we weren't looking for models to make them act like they are in a real life relationship. We knew we didn't want to make a statement other than wanting everyone to be equal. All the couples have the same amount of time in the video. The old, the young, the inter-racial, the gay - they all have the same time as it's an equal feeling for all of us. We are all human and we all feel.

What can people expect from the album?

We worked really hard for there to not be one track sounding the same as the next. We wanted it to be this really great collection of very different songs. Expect an album and not a collection of singles. There are some songs that are chilled, some that are rock, some show our country roots. It is all of our influences growing up. I always listened to music in terms of it being good or bad, it wasn't ever broken into genres till pretty late in life. We wanted to make a record on that philosophy.

Lastly, what UK ambitions do you have?

To get there! I haven't been there yet. We would love to get over and play some shows. That's pretty wild to me. We've had some fans message us saying they want us to come over. It's cool to see that there are people who love it and are invested in it. We worked on trying to get this record available for purchase in the UK. I kind of just assumed it was automatic, but people weren't able to get it. With this record we definitely made it a point to make it available for everyone over there.

My brother's wife is Lucie Silvas, who is an artist from the UK. She just recently put out a new record in the States and she has been getting acclaim here. We've talked about pairing up with her and doing some shows together over there. It will happen sooner rather than later.