The Long Road Sit Down with Redferrin
The Long Road Festival returned this weekend to Stanford Hall in Lutterworth. For many artists around the world, a 17th Century country estate in rural England probably wasn’t the top of many artists bucket list venues, however, since starting out in 2018, The Long Road Festival is suddenly becoming a not to miss festival for country music fans this side on the pond and one that many artists are now keen to play. One such artist is Redferrin (born Blake Redferrin) who grew up just 30 miles from Nashville.
I just hoped to be able to play around the US, you know, and then to hear people know the music out here blew my mind. I was telling them earlier, London's one of the first places anybody ever sang my music back to me. I'm just really partial to over here now, it's a sweet memory for me.
Redferrin was over in Europe in March this year and has been able to time this festival return by supporting the Sunday night headliner, Russell Dickerson, on his UK tour.
I'm thankful he's having me out, man. Last time we were lucky enough to go out with Carter Faith and Restless Road and we were in Germany. We are getting to meet extra people and stuff, it’s sweet! I know Russell draws a good crowd and his fans are super loyal. I can't wait to have a chance to meet all of his people that come to his shows over here.
The visit back in March introduced Referrin to the UK crowds, but also to those in Germany as part of the C2C weekend in Berlin and joining both Restless Road and Carter Faith on the road, and the first trip certainly made a lasting impact.
The German crowd, they're like really quiet and attentive, but it's because they're paying attention. At first, we thought it was because they didn't know it or didn't like it, but then by the second and third chorus, they sing with you! They're just very attentive and then they're drinking and rowdy between songs, but they're very attentive. It's almost like a songwriter's round. In London, it felt a tad more like America where they're rocking with you the whole time from the jump and it's two totally different energies, but it's so cool because like I said, it feels a little more intimate when they're like actually listening to you. It was special to me. When you first come over, you hear all these wonderful things about these people that listen to your music; pay attention to what you do; listen to deep cuts; go all the way through a song you've never even recorded and sat on YouTube.
I just hoped to be able to play around the US, you know, and then to hear people know the music out here blew my mind. I was telling them earlier, London's one of the first places anybody ever sang my music back to me. I'm just really partial to over here now, it's a sweet memory for me.
Redferrin was over in Europe in March this year and has been able to time this festival return by supporting the Sunday night headliner, Russell Dickerson, on his UK tour.
I'm thankful he's having me out, man. Last time we were lucky enough to go out with Carter Faith and Restless Road and we were in Germany. We are getting to meet extra people and stuff, it’s sweet! I know Russell draws a good crowd and his fans are super loyal. I can't wait to have a chance to meet all of his people that come to his shows over here.
The visit back in March introduced Referrin to the UK crowds, but also to those in Germany as part of the C2C weekend in Berlin and joining both Restless Road and Carter Faith on the road, and the first trip certainly made a lasting impact.
The German crowd, they're like really quiet and attentive, but it's because they're paying attention. At first, we thought it was because they didn't know it or didn't like it, but then by the second and third chorus, they sing with you! They're just very attentive and then they're drinking and rowdy between songs, but they're very attentive. It's almost like a songwriter's round. In London, it felt a tad more like America where they're rocking with you the whole time from the jump and it's two totally different energies, but it's so cool because like I said, it feels a little more intimate when they're like actually listening to you. It was special to me. When you first come over, you hear all these wonderful things about these people that listen to your music; pay attention to what you do; listen to deep cuts; go all the way through a song you've never even recorded and sat on YouTube.
When I played the O2, we got to do our last show there. I remember my microphone went out halfway through Champagne In The Morning, and they sang the whole rest of the song until we got the microphone fixed and that was a deep cut of Old Number Seven! For them to already know that was mad as it had only been out a couple of weeks. I felt like the people that were showing up really did their homework and they want to give you a fair chance; enjoy the music; and be a part of it with you instead of just hear it.
Despite being raised close to Music City, being a recording artist wasn’t the first career choice for Redferrin because he spent his first 24 years on the pegs of a dirt bike, chasing high-speed dreams with the throttle pinned and no kill switch. He earned a professional ride by the time he was 18 and joined the national Arenacross circuit.
Arena Cross was crazy, man. I grew up chasing that dream my whole life and I always wrote songs as a hobby, but I just didn't know how to start a band, so dirt bikes got my full attention. I got to do Arena Cross and Super Cross for three years and it was just so cool to be able to ride a dirt bike in a stadium or an arena. I just always kept getting hurt. So, that was the only downfall. Every time I'd get on a team, I'd crash and break my arm and then they'd have to sign somebody else because the bike's got to roll. That's still my favourite hobby today. That's my best getaway, best stress reliever. You're just out there tearing up the dirt, you know, and then you get off feeling like a new man. When Tyler and Brian originally signed me, it was a cold deal with them and Warner and they're like, we got to make sure your contract says you can ride your dirt bike! I made sure it said in there I can still do my thing, but I just really love what I'm doing now and I love writing songs and honestly, sometimes I'm a little nervous to get out and ride again because I'd hate to not be able to sing these songs and do what I'm doing right now. I'm really thankful for it. I feel like I got to just tuck that away for a little bit and I'll have some fun with that when I can. We got some little e-bikes we ride around at the shows and the festivals. That kind of scratches the itch - it's nowhere near the same, but, you know, it gets you by.
Arena Cross was crazy, man. I grew up chasing that dream my whole life and I always wrote songs as a hobby, but I just didn't know how to start a band, so dirt bikes got my full attention. I got to do Arena Cross and Super Cross for three years and it was just so cool to be able to ride a dirt bike in a stadium or an arena. I just always kept getting hurt. So, that was the only downfall. Every time I'd get on a team, I'd crash and break my arm and then they'd have to sign somebody else because the bike's got to roll. That's still my favourite hobby today. That's my best getaway, best stress reliever. You're just out there tearing up the dirt, you know, and then you get off feeling like a new man. When Tyler and Brian originally signed me, it was a cold deal with them and Warner and they're like, we got to make sure your contract says you can ride your dirt bike! I made sure it said in there I can still do my thing, but I just really love what I'm doing now and I love writing songs and honestly, sometimes I'm a little nervous to get out and ride again because I'd hate to not be able to sing these songs and do what I'm doing right now. I'm really thankful for it. I feel like I got to just tuck that away for a little bit and I'll have some fun with that when I can. We got some little e-bikes we ride around at the shows and the festivals. That kind of scratches the itch - it's nowhere near the same, but, you know, it gets you by.
For Redferrin's music fans, fortunately the new itch for him formed into February's debut EP - OLD NO. 7. The EP, which was released just weeks before his first ever European tour dates has been lead by the success of two tracks in particular – Jack and Diet Coke, and Just Like Johnny
It feels like a couple of weeks ago, but it feels like a year ago. It's been wild to see the response. Jack and Diet Coke almost has 100 million. Johnny has 50 and that's mad to me. I'm so thankful for the response. I mean, I always wanted to do a project because I feel like it would help people understand who I am as an artist a little more than singles, because my sound is diverse. Man, I'm just so thankful people took to it, because I poured my heart into them songs. I produced them all. Me and my buddies played all the guitars and banjos on them. We really poured a lot into it. I'm really thankful people like it, man. Seriously, it means a lot.
It feels like a couple of weeks ago, but it feels like a year ago. It's been wild to see the response. Jack and Diet Coke almost has 100 million. Johnny has 50 and that's mad to me. I'm so thankful for the response. I mean, I always wanted to do a project because I feel like it would help people understand who I am as an artist a little more than singles, because my sound is diverse. Man, I'm just so thankful people took to it, because I poured my heart into them songs. I produced them all. Me and my buddies played all the guitars and banjos on them. We really poured a lot into it. I'm really thankful people like it, man. Seriously, it means a lot.
I've probably got six or seven hundred songs. We started at about 80 and then the label said that's too long. Well, you know, I just kept narrowing it down. What was really funny though is I got it to 20 and then I wrote Jack and Diet; I wrote Loser For Nothing, and I kind of got on this new sound! The only old song I kept was Miss Summer and everything else I wrote within like a two month period. I still have that whole old bank of songs that I want to share that are just log back for right now, you know. Most people I knew growing up that I looked up to when they did a project, they wrote it at once so that it had a cohesive feel. What was really important to me was for it to be musical, not just seven good songs from the last five years. I started off as a songwriter and I think a lot of that old catalogue varies because I was trying to write them for different people. And a lot of the stuff I've got to write in the last year is just for me, because I decided to quit pitching songs for a little while.
One of those songs that Redferrin wrote for another artist was the Dean Brody and The Reklaws' double platinum Canadian smash hit “I Can’t Help Myself,” that went to Number 1 in the Canadian Country Billboard Chart and broke the record for the most played song ever at Canadian country radio in a single week on the Nielsen BDS charts with 1782 spins.
Man, I'm very thankful for the Reklaws and Dean Brody. That's my first number one ever! I'll remember them forever. They're the sweetest people I know, man. Me and Florida Georgia Line were supposed to cut that together, but there started being rumblings of them going to break up even that long ago, and one of my buddies I wrote it with was out at a bar in Nashville and Reklaws manager was there, so he did the most Nashville shit ever and he said, “Hey, I got a good duet, you need a song for two artists?” He sent them the song and Dean and Reklaws was like, hell yeah, we'll take that. They made it a smash up there, man. That was one of the first songs I got cut that I sang a demo on, as me and FGL. To know we wrote something and I sang it and somebody liked it good enough to sing it, gave me a little more faith in what I was doing. I think I was a little unsure at the time. All my buddies around me started getting hits a little quicker, and I had faith, but, I was just wondering, you know, how it was going to happen. Thankfully, that was my first little bit of roots I got to put in town and people took me serious because that song performed so well.
One of those songs that Redferrin wrote for another artist was the Dean Brody and The Reklaws' double platinum Canadian smash hit “I Can’t Help Myself,” that went to Number 1 in the Canadian Country Billboard Chart and broke the record for the most played song ever at Canadian country radio in a single week on the Nielsen BDS charts with 1782 spins.
Man, I'm very thankful for the Reklaws and Dean Brody. That's my first number one ever! I'll remember them forever. They're the sweetest people I know, man. Me and Florida Georgia Line were supposed to cut that together, but there started being rumblings of them going to break up even that long ago, and one of my buddies I wrote it with was out at a bar in Nashville and Reklaws manager was there, so he did the most Nashville shit ever and he said, “Hey, I got a good duet, you need a song for two artists?” He sent them the song and Dean and Reklaws was like, hell yeah, we'll take that. They made it a smash up there, man. That was one of the first songs I got cut that I sang a demo on, as me and FGL. To know we wrote something and I sang it and somebody liked it good enough to sing it, gave me a little more faith in what I was doing. I think I was a little unsure at the time. All my buddies around me started getting hits a little quicker, and I had faith, but, I was just wondering, you know, how it was going to happen. Thankfully, that was my first little bit of roots I got to put in town and people took me serious because that song performed so well.