Brothers Osborne: ‘Making a record is like skydiving’
Country superstars talk politics and writing music, ahead of their Belfast gig
Last updated 4th May 2018
Country superstars, Brothers Osborne, are relishing their first visit to Ireland.
The Maryland-born siblings, John and TJ, play the Limelight in Belfast tomorrow (Saturday) as part of their headline UK and Ireland tour.
Speaking to Downtown Country presenter, Stuart Banford, John said he planned to make the most of his trip.
“It’ll be my first time ever in Ireland so I’ll be checking a lot of boxes off there,” he said.
“I’ve always just wanted to go to Ireland as a fan of everything I hear about Ireland, it sounds totally amazing and dreamy and being an Osborne I’m sure we have some ancestors born around there somewhere.”
The pair definitely do not shy away from heavy subjects such as politics.
Last year’s hit single It Ain’t My Fault was a nod to the 1991 surfing crime thriller Point Break which featured robbers wearing presidential masks during a heist.
John said although it was not intended to be political commentary, they tried to acknowledge what was happening beyond the music world:
“I think we don’t always succeed at this but we try to do it in a way that is tasteful and…mindful of opposing opinions,” he told me.
“At least in American politics right now everything is so incredibly divisive and everyone’s staying away from it and we just thought ‘let’s just make fun of the whole thing.’
“And that’s really what we did with that video, it really doesn’t matter which party you support, I’m sick of politicians saying ‘it ain’t my fault.’
“It’s all politicians do is deflect blame so we thought this is perfect.”
The guys have just released their second album, Port Saint Joe, named after the beachfront area in Florida where it was recorded.
John told us he believed the quirky venue contributed to its unique sound:
“We took probably about 20 to 30 songs down to Port Saint Joe, the beach house where we recorded the record,” he said.
“We knew that we liked the vibe of them and the lyrical content of them and we just kind of thought let’s let the music really lead us down a path.
“That’s really what happened, trying to figure out what songs went with the other really just came from us recording and experimenting.
“We recorded for two weeks in this beach house which was not built for recording.
“There was this communal room it was like a dining room, living room and kitchen all in one.
“Because of that it put us in this position where a lot of what we recorded couldn’t be changed because everything was just this big melting pot of music.
“I think that’s one of the things about our new record, it’s really hard to capture what you do live on an album.
“I think we’ve gotten the closest we’ve ever gotten to that with this one and I think one of our strengths is performing live so that was really important for us.”
The duo teamed up with producer Jay Joyce on the album and said he gave them confidence to take risks.
“Making a record, it’s like skydiving,” John said.
“You get up there, you have this big grand plan… and then you get up there and it’s really scary, you don’t want to jump out.
“Jay is that guy there that’s there to just be like ‘do it.’
“And you do and it ends up being one of the most memorable experiences of your life and that’s how it was recording this record.
“You have these big ideas of doing something cool and something unique but then you get in the studio and suddenly you start to worry about if radio’s gonna play it, you worry about if the label’s gonna like it, worry about if the fans are gonna like it, instead of just trusting the process and freefalling.”