Warner Music Nashville’s power-house sister duo, Walker County talk writing tunes, touring with Tanya Tucker, and staying sane during the pandemic. Stream the new single, “Bits and Pieces“ below.
1. We love your song “Bits & Pieces!” What was it about the song that drew the two of you to it and made you want to cut it?
Sam Hunt originally wrote this song and then we were pitched his demo of it. We immediately became fans of his version of the song, and we knew if he wasn’t going to cut it, we wanted to! It’s such a fun song and we knew we wanted to put our own spin on it!
2. Tell us a little bit about how you got started in music. Was there a particular moment where you knew that you wanted to do music together?
We have been playing together in a band for 13 years! We went on a family vacation in 2007 to Nashville TN, and our dad asked us if we wanted to street perform on Broadway just to say we did it. We sang the few country songs we had worked up and made about 10 bucks. When we went back home to Indiana our dad said if we wanted to we could do this for real! So we started working up music and playing anywhere they would listen to us! The rest was history!
3. Sophie, when did you start playing drums? What was that learning process like, did you teach yourself, go to lessons, etc?
I started playing when I was 10 years old! My dad surprised me with a sparkly drum kit and I was sold! I took just a few lessons from the drummer at our church, but a lot of my drumming was self taught! I learned a lot by trial and error and just playing shows and practicing constantly! It wasn’t until a few years ago that I took some lessons from a drummer in Nashville to work more on my techniques.
4. Who are some of your musical influences?
(Sophie) As a drummer I love 80s rock drummers, of course Tommy Lee and Lars Ulrich. I love how they put on a show and that a lot of Motley Crue and Metallica fans would come to the show just for them.
(Ivy) I’m a fan of vocalist and storytellers. I’m inspired by women from Dolly Parton to Demi Lovato!
5. How do you think your music and/or writing has developed since you both started making music?
We started making music while we were so young, so we have definitely grown. We’ve lived life, had heartbreak, and made mistakes and we put those personal experiences in our music.
6. You’re set to join Tanya Tucker on the Next Women of Country Tour later this year. What are you most excited about with those upcoming shows?
We’re super excited to get the opportunity to perform in front of her fans. One of the first songs we ever performed was “Jamestown Ferry” and to come full circle and see her perform that song every night will be a dream come true! There is always something you can learn from someone like Tanya Tucker, and it will be great to watch her in action!
7. What has been the most challenging part of staying creative during the pandemic?
By not traveling and getting to have those face to face moments with people has been hard! We get our song ideas and inspiration from living life in general so it’s been difficult staying home and having that same sort of creative energy!
8. What else is on the horizon for y'all that you can share with us?
Our single “Bits & Pieces” will be hitting country radio this year, and we couldn’t be more excited to share our music with a bigger audience!
STREAM “BITS AND PIECES” BELOW
