The Sit Down with Eric Paslay
Eric Paslay is an artist that instantly connected with fans on this side of the Atlantic from the moment he first set foot on these shores. The Platinum-selling, GRAMMY, ACM, and CMA-nominated hit songwriter, artist and performer who has celebrated five No.1 hits, is to release his new album “Even If It Breaks Your Barefoot Friday Night on April 15th through Paso Fino Records. The album, which was recorded at Early Bird Studio, where it was produced, engineered and mixed by Mitch Furr features Paslay’s take on some of his biggest hits as both an artist and songwriter which he has studio recorded for release for the first time.
After last visiting the United Kingdom to play shows in 2019 and coming so close to playing at the O2 arena for the Country to Country which did not take place due to them pandemic (even though he was able to play the festival in both Amsterdam and Berlin in 2020), Eric is returning for an extensive run of shows opening for The Shires through April and May. Ahead of the trip, we had a catch up over Zoom to get the latest on the tour and his new release.
“It’s been a time that didn’t exist but very much existed. It’s been wild but semi-relaxing for us, knock on wood, none of us got sick here at the house but I know a lot of people did. All that being said, I’m thrilled that I am finally getting to come back over to hang with you all and we’re finally getting to do this tour. It’s kind of mind-blowing looking at the tour schedule. Our plan was that my wife and little girl Piper, who is three years old would come over and go on a few runs with me but looking at it was so busy. Twenty-five shows in five weeks with Ben and Chrissie will be a rush, it will be amazing and it’s going to fly by. I keep thinking to myself, what can I do every day to make sure that I remember every town that we’re in and make it meaningful but thank goodness for Zoom and Facetime calls to be able to catch up with them.”
The tour that he is currently playing on with The Shires is not just a lot of dates (25) but also highly condensed over a much shorter period than a tour of this magnitude would be in the States.
“It just shows how amazing Ben and Chrissie are. The following that The shires have there, they are really leading the way with country music in the UK and Europe, so I’m thrilled to get to share the stage with them. I didn’t even know you could do that many places, most people I talk to are like how can you do twenty-five dates just in the UK? It’s twenty-five dates and selling a lot of tickets which is incredible and inspiring for me because I love playing over there. I’ve been coming to see you all for five or six years now and continuing to grow, I’m literally investing in y’all. I love coming over there, I definitely have not made a dime yet in coming but I love you all and love being there. I believe in the UK, I believe in Europe, so I want to come and tour there for the rest of my life and we’re definitely setting that up. It’s definitely different in the States, yes, I tour for a living and do well, but I love to see you all and that’s why I keep coming back.”
After last visiting the United Kingdom to play shows in 2019 and coming so close to playing at the O2 arena for the Country to Country which did not take place due to them pandemic (even though he was able to play the festival in both Amsterdam and Berlin in 2020), Eric is returning for an extensive run of shows opening for The Shires through April and May. Ahead of the trip, we had a catch up over Zoom to get the latest on the tour and his new release.
“It’s been a time that didn’t exist but very much existed. It’s been wild but semi-relaxing for us, knock on wood, none of us got sick here at the house but I know a lot of people did. All that being said, I’m thrilled that I am finally getting to come back over to hang with you all and we’re finally getting to do this tour. It’s kind of mind-blowing looking at the tour schedule. Our plan was that my wife and little girl Piper, who is three years old would come over and go on a few runs with me but looking at it was so busy. Twenty-five shows in five weeks with Ben and Chrissie will be a rush, it will be amazing and it’s going to fly by. I keep thinking to myself, what can I do every day to make sure that I remember every town that we’re in and make it meaningful but thank goodness for Zoom and Facetime calls to be able to catch up with them.”
The tour that he is currently playing on with The Shires is not just a lot of dates (25) but also highly condensed over a much shorter period than a tour of this magnitude would be in the States.
“It just shows how amazing Ben and Chrissie are. The following that The shires have there, they are really leading the way with country music in the UK and Europe, so I’m thrilled to get to share the stage with them. I didn’t even know you could do that many places, most people I talk to are like how can you do twenty-five dates just in the UK? It’s twenty-five dates and selling a lot of tickets which is incredible and inspiring for me because I love playing over there. I’ve been coming to see you all for five or six years now and continuing to grow, I’m literally investing in y’all. I love coming over there, I definitely have not made a dime yet in coming but I love you all and love being there. I believe in the UK, I believe in Europe, so I want to come and tour there for the rest of my life and we’re definitely setting that up. It’s definitely different in the States, yes, I tour for a living and do well, but I love to see you all and that’s why I keep coming back.”
One of the really interesting things about this tour with The Shires is not just the scale of how many shows are on the run but the scope of how much of the country the tour heads to. American touring artists tend to play the same set of cities, so for Eric who especially loves the culture and exploring it must feel quite fresh to experience plenty of new places.
“I’m with you on that. The funny thing is that all of my friends in Glasgow are like (in a perfectly executed Scottish accent) “What the heck! Why are you not coming to Glasgow?” but I’m coming to Edinburgh and I’ve actually never been to Edinburgh. I’ve been to Scotland so many times and we recorded the live album in Glasgow, but I’ve never made it to Edinburgh, so I’m looking forward to taking my little stick and finding Harry Potter. As far as big cities go, we are playing London and all that, but it will be amazing to see Wales and all of these amazing towns that I’ve never been to. The venues look amazing, I love old theatres and well set up theatres where every show is that. I’m thinking do I need to document each day, or do I need to write a song each day as I want to absorb everything but the honest truth I’ll probably need to remember to breathe as it will be go, go, go with travelling and playing all of these shows.”
The tour coincides with the release of his new record “Even If It Breaks Your Barefoot Friday Night”which apart from being a bit of a mouthful could almost be described as a record of old songs that sound new. It features some reworked versions of tracks that he has put out before as Eric Paslay “The Artist” along with recording for the first time songs that he plays every night from Eric Paslay “The Hit Songwriter” that many country music fans would be more familiar with from other artists recording them. Above all the record really feels like something that fans have wanted for quite some time.
“I play “Barefoot Blue Jean Night”, “Even If It Breaks Your Heart”, “Angel Eyes” and “Rewind” every night and I play “The Driver” where I don’t have a version of just me singing it, but I wrote them. It was one of those moments of well I need to record them and also, I own them so that would be cool to own my own version of “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” so people that listen to Jake can listen to me too! I make music, can record them and I always like a challenge of how I can record them not exactly the same again. I love music, I love creating music and fans have always asked why I hadn’t recorded those, so I did that and, in the meantime, thought why not record a different version of “Friday Night” and “She Don’t Love You”.
“I’m with you on that. The funny thing is that all of my friends in Glasgow are like (in a perfectly executed Scottish accent) “What the heck! Why are you not coming to Glasgow?” but I’m coming to Edinburgh and I’ve actually never been to Edinburgh. I’ve been to Scotland so many times and we recorded the live album in Glasgow, but I’ve never made it to Edinburgh, so I’m looking forward to taking my little stick and finding Harry Potter. As far as big cities go, we are playing London and all that, but it will be amazing to see Wales and all of these amazing towns that I’ve never been to. The venues look amazing, I love old theatres and well set up theatres where every show is that. I’m thinking do I need to document each day, or do I need to write a song each day as I want to absorb everything but the honest truth I’ll probably need to remember to breathe as it will be go, go, go with travelling and playing all of these shows.”
The tour coincides with the release of his new record “Even If It Breaks Your Barefoot Friday Night”which apart from being a bit of a mouthful could almost be described as a record of old songs that sound new. It features some reworked versions of tracks that he has put out before as Eric Paslay “The Artist” along with recording for the first time songs that he plays every night from Eric Paslay “The Hit Songwriter” that many country music fans would be more familiar with from other artists recording them. Above all the record really feels like something that fans have wanted for quite some time.
“I play “Barefoot Blue Jean Night”, “Even If It Breaks Your Heart”, “Angel Eyes” and “Rewind” every night and I play “The Driver” where I don’t have a version of just me singing it, but I wrote them. It was one of those moments of well I need to record them and also, I own them so that would be cool to own my own version of “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” so people that listen to Jake can listen to me too! I make music, can record them and I always like a challenge of how I can record them not exactly the same again. I love music, I love creating music and fans have always asked why I hadn’t recorded those, so I did that and, in the meantime, thought why not record a different version of “Friday Night” and “She Don’t Love You”.
“It was fun and I was aware that I play them every night where I have played them the same for however long, I sort of play the other number ones different than the other artists, but I trust Mitch (Furr) who I recorded it with, so much and I kind of went here, take it and go and make it completely different. We still have the riff but reimagine it and it was so fun to go into what do you think about this and he’s nailed it, I’ll come and sing vocals tomorrow, sang it a few times and we were done. I think that I’ve just wanted to do it for a long time. It was just time and we’re actually in the studio recording another batch of songs, which I don’t know if they will be an album or just part of the never-ending sound of Eric’s labyrinth. I’m writing songs all the time and I have all these songs that I know people want to hear but this is perfect for right now.”
Going back to Eric as a songwriter, when we spoke over Zoom it was just after Tin Pan South which is a big songwriters festival in Nashville had taken place. During the event, Eric had played the same show which also included Callista Clark and Laci Kaye Booth who had both recently returned to the US following their UK debuts at this years C2C Festival in London. We talked about the importance of songwriting remaining the core focus of the song along with seeing it as a platform for new artists to hone their craft in addition to performing.
“You always hear people say it and it really is, but it all begins with a song. It doesn’t matter how bright your laser beams are, how big your bus is or how many planes you have to take you to a show but if you have nothing to sing, you have nothing to sing and if you have nothing good to sing then people will not be entertained. I’m a fan of songwriters because I’m a fan of songs. We all try and figure out ways to say “I love you” or “I miss you” every day and the more you write the more you have written that idea, so are you able to write another “I miss summer” song and you do it. I literally did one last week and yep it still works, it sounds great, and I still love it. Those who respect those who create, I respect them. People that don’t mind seeing behind what I always call the Walls of Oz, like the Wizard of Oz and how things are made because it’s not like you can just stand on stage and a song comes out of you, somebody wrote it and if it wasn’t the artist it was someone else. I’m getting over a cold, which sucks because I’m supposed to write with Callista tomorrow, but I don’t want to get other people sick. Having it now is good for the UK though I suppose as I’ll be done with my tiny cold before I get over there but she’s amazing, Laci is amazing too and it’s always cool to do a writers round and do that. My shows with The Shires are going to be more stories as it’s just me and my guitar, where nothing needs to happen other than for me to be able to entertain the crowd every night. You’ve got to change it up as much as possible as over twenty-five shows, I’m sure there will be plenty of people coming to a few shows and heck I’m sure there are some songs waiting for me in the UK that I can catch as a writer over there.”
In addition to working on a new record and preparing for his return to the UK, he has also entered the wonderful and confusing world of NFT’s. You hear a lot of fascination with these tokens but I figured to best way to understand what exactly are they was to ask someone that creates them. He also went on to describe how he got involved in them and what it brings to him as an artist along with the benefit to his fans in investing.
“NFT’s, confusing, yes! Why? Because they are just confusing! It’s like people are spending what on what? The question is why, and I don’t know why other than people are spending money on this and enjoy it. The majority of how NFT’s have been rocking is art, you know Picasso’s not going to die broke and people are intrigued with art which is intriguing to me and I love that. In the music world, I’m brand new to this too kind of and I’m like why are people paying a million dollars for a gorilla? In my world, it’s like let’s do a digital one and you get something else with it. What I’m doing with mine and the first one there was a hundred in the cool little NFT community that I formed, you got a cool little picture that my brother and I shot. He does this amazing process with open lens, then there is the CGI loop, spinning thing that got added in but the photo itself is a true photo. He has these lights that he spins in a circle, creating a sphere and I set my guitar in the centre of where the sphere was and used a flashlight to light it up so the guitar is there in the picture and we shone the light on the hay behind it so you can sort of see the field. I love the art of that and what he does, so you do get the photo but also, it’s a community.”
Going back to Eric as a songwriter, when we spoke over Zoom it was just after Tin Pan South which is a big songwriters festival in Nashville had taken place. During the event, Eric had played the same show which also included Callista Clark and Laci Kaye Booth who had both recently returned to the US following their UK debuts at this years C2C Festival in London. We talked about the importance of songwriting remaining the core focus of the song along with seeing it as a platform for new artists to hone their craft in addition to performing.
“You always hear people say it and it really is, but it all begins with a song. It doesn’t matter how bright your laser beams are, how big your bus is or how many planes you have to take you to a show but if you have nothing to sing, you have nothing to sing and if you have nothing good to sing then people will not be entertained. I’m a fan of songwriters because I’m a fan of songs. We all try and figure out ways to say “I love you” or “I miss you” every day and the more you write the more you have written that idea, so are you able to write another “I miss summer” song and you do it. I literally did one last week and yep it still works, it sounds great, and I still love it. Those who respect those who create, I respect them. People that don’t mind seeing behind what I always call the Walls of Oz, like the Wizard of Oz and how things are made because it’s not like you can just stand on stage and a song comes out of you, somebody wrote it and if it wasn’t the artist it was someone else. I’m getting over a cold, which sucks because I’m supposed to write with Callista tomorrow, but I don’t want to get other people sick. Having it now is good for the UK though I suppose as I’ll be done with my tiny cold before I get over there but she’s amazing, Laci is amazing too and it’s always cool to do a writers round and do that. My shows with The Shires are going to be more stories as it’s just me and my guitar, where nothing needs to happen other than for me to be able to entertain the crowd every night. You’ve got to change it up as much as possible as over twenty-five shows, I’m sure there will be plenty of people coming to a few shows and heck I’m sure there are some songs waiting for me in the UK that I can catch as a writer over there.”
In addition to working on a new record and preparing for his return to the UK, he has also entered the wonderful and confusing world of NFT’s. You hear a lot of fascination with these tokens but I figured to best way to understand what exactly are they was to ask someone that creates them. He also went on to describe how he got involved in them and what it brings to him as an artist along with the benefit to his fans in investing.
“NFT’s, confusing, yes! Why? Because they are just confusing! It’s like people are spending what on what? The question is why, and I don’t know why other than people are spending money on this and enjoy it. The majority of how NFT’s have been rocking is art, you know Picasso’s not going to die broke and people are intrigued with art which is intriguing to me and I love that. In the music world, I’m brand new to this too kind of and I’m like why are people paying a million dollars for a gorilla? In my world, it’s like let’s do a digital one and you get something else with it. What I’m doing with mine and the first one there was a hundred in the cool little NFT community that I formed, you got a cool little picture that my brother and I shot. He does this amazing process with open lens, then there is the CGI loop, spinning thing that got added in but the photo itself is a true photo. He has these lights that he spins in a circle, creating a sphere and I set my guitar in the centre of where the sphere was and used a flashlight to light it up so the guitar is there in the picture and we shone the light on the hay behind it so you can sort of see the field. I love the art of that and what he does, so you do get the photo but also, it’s a community.”
“It’s like the never-ending ticket, it’s like the Wonka Golden Ticket, you know. This was twenty-five bucks for a never-ending opportunity to hangout with me, whatever we create, you’re invited to but there is only a hundred and you had to invest the first time. Also, on that ticket I hope they make a whole lot of money but also hope that they don’t sell it because it’s so much fun hanging in the community. The second one was when I built ten lights, nine of them were for sale because I gave one of them away to the one hundred as part of the never-ending ticket with endless value. There is a spinning orb, NFT digital video that spins forever, and you get the whole blockchain technology, which basically to me means that you can’t fake this receipt. This is what it is, and you can’t lie about it, so if you have a ticket to my show, it’s definitely a ticket to my show. It’s endless and confusing but pretty simple when you put it as you can’t lie about this and can never get scammed with buying a ticket if it’s on Blockchain. NFT’s are merging music with art where you can’t lie about it and with open possibilities.”
“The third drop which hasn’t happened yet, I’m literally auctioning off ten percent of net profits from this album. There will be ten, one percent or you could buy all ten, I don’t know. You could bid on every single one, that’s my joke about auctions. An auction, if you guess the highest number then you win it and if you don’t win, you didn’t guess high enough. I’m expecting people to make a whole lot more money than they are going to buy it for, which is kind of stupid of me to do but I’ve always been a fan of other artists, so if I could own a part of an album from someone that I loved. I’m not just giving you a brand-new album, I’m guaranteeing you five number ones, two Grammy nominated songs and a couple of CMA and ACM nominated songs so is literally an album full of hits. This is for the fans that I’m doing it, it’s crazy, it’s nuts and I think I’m the first country artist to actually do this with an album but why not be ahead of the curve, have fun and open people’s minds up to cool new ways of income and cool new ways of hanging out with your fans, giving them cool new opportunities and experiences.”
Lastly we ended on whether we may see any full band shows from Eric on this side of the Atlantic along with how he is one of the most prominent supporters of encouraging artists to take the plunge and try playing on this side of the Atlantic.
“I’m not sure about full band shows at the moment but I do know that I have a show in Denmark in the fall and I will definitely be there, why would I not come and see you guys too? Every artist that I meet, especially like Callista, Laci and all of those newer artists, before they have all the buses and everything, I’m telling them as soon as they can to go to Europe and build that to where the US and Europe are the same. You can do it and it is not as scary as some people think. I speak to bigger artists who are friends of mine who say they will lose so much money, but I know and tell them that it’s awesome. If it was only about the money, I would make different decisions in a lot of things that I have done but it’s the experience, the fans and the songs so I cannot wait. It’s been like Christmas for two years, waiting to see if Santa will deliver the tour to me and now here, we are.”
'Even If It Breaks Your Barefoot Friday Night' Track List:
1. High Class (Eric Paslay, Jesse Frasure, Corey Crowder)
2. Barefoot Blue Jean Night (Eric Paslay, Dylan Altman, Terry Sawchuck)
3. The Driver (Eric Paslay, Charles Kelley, Abe Stoklasa)
4. Friday Night (Eric Paslay, Rob Crosby, Rose Falcon)
5. Rewind (Eric Paslay, Ashley Gorley, Chris DeStefano)
6. Song About A Girl (Eric Paslay, Jessi Alexander, Gordie Sampson)
7. Even If It Breaks Your Heart (Eric Paslay, Will Hoge)
8. Angel Eyes (Eric Paslay, Jeff Coplan, Eric Gunderson)
9. She Don’t Love You (Eric Paslay, Jennifer Wayne)
UK Tour dates with The Shires:
Thursday 21 April - Weymouth Pavilion, Weymouth
Friday 22 April - Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth
Saturday 23 April - St David’s Hall, Cardiff
Monday 25 April - Brighton Dome, Brighton
Wednesday 27 April - The Anvil, Basingstoke
Thursday 28 April - Princess Theatre, Torquay
Saturday 30 April - Victoria Hall, Stoke-on-Trent
Sunday 1 May - O2 Academy Bristol, Bristol
Monday 2 May - Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
Wednesday 4 May - Sands Centre, Carlisle
Thursday 5 May - Sage Gateshead, Gateshead
Friday 6 May - York Barbican Centre, York
Sunday 8 May - Liquid Room, Edinburgh
Monday 9 May - Beach Ballroom, Aberdeen
Wednesday 11 May - The Engine Shed, Lincoln
Thursday 12 May - Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone
Friday 13 May - Bedford Corn Exchange, Bedford
Sunday 15 May - Cambridge Corn Exchange, Cambridge
Monday 16 May - The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
Tuesday 17 May - Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Thursday 19 May - New Theatre – Oxford, Oxford
Friday 20 May - G Live, Guildford
Saturday 21 May - Ipswich Regent Theatre, Ipswich
Monday 23 May - Theatre Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham
Tuesday 24 May - London Palladium, London
Eric Paslay’s new album “Even If It Breaks Your Barefoot Friday Night” is out now through Paso Fino Records which you are able to find HERE. All of his upcoming tour dates with The Shires are shown above and you can find ticket information on his WEBSITE then keep up to date with Eric socially on INSTAGRAM TWITTER YOUTUBE & FACEBOOK
Lastly we ended on whether we may see any full band shows from Eric on this side of the Atlantic along with how he is one of the most prominent supporters of encouraging artists to take the plunge and try playing on this side of the Atlantic.
“I’m not sure about full band shows at the moment but I do know that I have a show in Denmark in the fall and I will definitely be there, why would I not come and see you guys too? Every artist that I meet, especially like Callista, Laci and all of those newer artists, before they have all the buses and everything, I’m telling them as soon as they can to go to Europe and build that to where the US and Europe are the same. You can do it and it is not as scary as some people think. I speak to bigger artists who are friends of mine who say they will lose so much money, but I know and tell them that it’s awesome. If it was only about the money, I would make different decisions in a lot of things that I have done but it’s the experience, the fans and the songs so I cannot wait. It’s been like Christmas for two years, waiting to see if Santa will deliver the tour to me and now here, we are.”
'Even If It Breaks Your Barefoot Friday Night' Track List:
1. High Class (Eric Paslay, Jesse Frasure, Corey Crowder)
2. Barefoot Blue Jean Night (Eric Paslay, Dylan Altman, Terry Sawchuck)
3. The Driver (Eric Paslay, Charles Kelley, Abe Stoklasa)
4. Friday Night (Eric Paslay, Rob Crosby, Rose Falcon)
5. Rewind (Eric Paslay, Ashley Gorley, Chris DeStefano)
6. Song About A Girl (Eric Paslay, Jessi Alexander, Gordie Sampson)
7. Even If It Breaks Your Heart (Eric Paslay, Will Hoge)
8. Angel Eyes (Eric Paslay, Jeff Coplan, Eric Gunderson)
9. She Don’t Love You (Eric Paslay, Jennifer Wayne)
UK Tour dates with The Shires:
Thursday 21 April - Weymouth Pavilion, Weymouth
Friday 22 April - Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth
Saturday 23 April - St David’s Hall, Cardiff
Monday 25 April - Brighton Dome, Brighton
Wednesday 27 April - The Anvil, Basingstoke
Thursday 28 April - Princess Theatre, Torquay
Saturday 30 April - Victoria Hall, Stoke-on-Trent
Sunday 1 May - O2 Academy Bristol, Bristol
Monday 2 May - Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
Wednesday 4 May - Sands Centre, Carlisle
Thursday 5 May - Sage Gateshead, Gateshead
Friday 6 May - York Barbican Centre, York
Sunday 8 May - Liquid Room, Edinburgh
Monday 9 May - Beach Ballroom, Aberdeen
Wednesday 11 May - The Engine Shed, Lincoln
Thursday 12 May - Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone
Friday 13 May - Bedford Corn Exchange, Bedford
Sunday 15 May - Cambridge Corn Exchange, Cambridge
Monday 16 May - The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
Tuesday 17 May - Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Thursday 19 May - New Theatre – Oxford, Oxford
Friday 20 May - G Live, Guildford
Saturday 21 May - Ipswich Regent Theatre, Ipswich
Monday 23 May - Theatre Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham
Tuesday 24 May - London Palladium, London
Eric Paslay’s new album “Even If It Breaks Your Barefoot Friday Night” is out now through Paso Fino Records which you are able to find HERE. All of his upcoming tour dates with The Shires are shown above and you can find ticket information on his WEBSITE then keep up to date with Eric socially on INSTAGRAM TWITTER YOUTUBE & FACEBOOK