Emerson Drive Gets Nod from the Academy of Country Music
Submitted By Sun Media
Mar 6, 2007

Link to original article

Nobody really looks forward to Monday mornings.

But yesterday, shortly before heading east over the Rockies, Emerson Drive front man Brad Mates woke up to the news that the band had been nominated for top vocal group at this year's Academy of Country Music Awards.

"These last few weeks have been a little crazy as far as news at the last second," Mates said about Emerson Drive's Juno nomination for its latest release COUNTRIFIED.

"That's probably the proudest feeling you could have. We spent almost a year and a half getting this (album) together and working with the team that we had in place to make sure we had the best songs and the best sound. And now it feels like it's coming full circle, so it feels great."

What also feels fantastic is heading back to his native Alberta for a handful of concerts, starting with the group's hometown of Grande Prairie tonight before heading to Edmonton's Cowboys tomorrow night and then on to Fort McMurray Thursday.

Only three of the six members who founded the band in high school are still around, while the other three were replaced shortly before the group's self-titled debut on the Nashville label DreamWorks.

"(They) just decided trying to balance a job on the road and trying to be a husband and father was a pretty hard thing to do. So they decided to step out.

"And I tip my hat to those guys for doing it, because it's a huge move and something you have to live with for the rest of your life and I think they made the right choice," Mates says, explaining the days of paying their dues were gruelling.

"We played some pretty god-awful places for those seven years ... but I wouldn't change it because it really brings a group together.

"We'd made a trip to Nashville once a year and the seventh year we went down, everything seemed to click."

Emerson Drive managed to release one other album with DreamWorks, 2004's What If?, before they were caught in the midst of a major label merger.

Although the band lost its deal, work on a new album continued and eventually found a new home. Emerson Drive was picked up by Nashville's brand-new Midas Recordings as its flagship artist, releasing COUNTRIFIED last summer.

"Our sound was a little too polished and had a pop flair to it, I guess you could say. And now, with this new album it's full circle for us because it's something we feel is Emerson Drive through and through," says 28-year-old Mates, who was thrilled to have Alabama's Teddy Gentry in the producer's chair.

"We've looked up to (him) our whole lives as a musician and as a member of a band. He really gets the idea of what it takes to get the sound off the road and bring that live sound into the studio and just recreate that onto a disc."

As is the way with the country music industry, the bottom line is all about the best songs, whether they're written by the artist or not.

"There are so many great writers in Nashville that spend hours and hours each day trying to write hit songs. It's very tough for us, being out on the road like we are, to find time to get that creative mind in the right place," says Mates, who plays up to 250 nights each year with the band.

"Slowly, in the last few years, we've been using more and more of our own stuff. So, hopefully that's an indication that the writing on our part is getting better."

© Copyright 1999 - 2007 by Thats Country  [ disclaimer ]