Country Music City Promotions

In my very first sit down interview with KINGSTON formerly The Carter Twins Saturday January 17,2015 at the Dusty Armadillo, Zach and Josh Carter come off purely geniune and completely polar opposite. Zach much more outgoing, talkative, a real extrovert, Josh on the other hand much more reserved, laid back and easy going. Yet these two 24 yr olds have the same excurberence on life and music.

 

You both started very young, did you always know you wanted to be in this business? Yes!, yeah, this is Zach talking, we started playing when we were like 14 and writing at 13, so we started out figuring out who could write the better song and then when we figured it out we would do it together.

 

( interuption )

"And what are we doing?", a club goer asks.

"An interview!", Kingston replies.

"I'm interviewing them", with my reply.

Zach tells her, "you'll be our featured spotlight."

"WOOHOO!", she squeels.

 

 

What does music mean to you?  It's like our heart and soul, this is our outlet, our meaning in life, it's our everything to us. It may sound superficial to say that. It really does mean everything to us. We're songwriters first and foremost. I know that some people journal, some people jam, but for us our outlet is songwriting.

 

You talked about writing "Fall Apart" for Casey James, how did the song come about, what inspired you to write it?  One of Josh's roomates best friends is from Cleveland, we kind of pollenated. We didn't know each other in Ohio we met in Nashville and at the time he went through a really bad break up and it was really awkward because we were friends with his Ex. It was great for us at the time cause we were in a writing rythm and wondered what was going on with that situation, then he came to us pouring his heart out. We finally came to the point of...  (interruption again)

 

 

What draws you to the writing process? Like Zach said everything that we go through is kind like a journal to us, we sit down and talk about it.

 

Do you write it out or talk it out?   We talk it out and then it comes down to just like playing a guitar riff, then Zach and I could be talking about it and some melody comes up. It all depends to, it's funny, now a days there are iphones and different phones like that. When your in your car when something hits you or something comes up you can write it down in your notes through your iphone. That is where a lot of our songs come to fruitation from taking notes and talking about it. This is how I feel, so I'm going to write it down. It's kinda cool! 

 

So it comes unexpected?  It's never forced !

 

We'll answer your question, back to the Casey James thing. Our friend Will was going through a bad break up and he kind of was talking it out and in the process was describing what had happened, taking place.  The first verse in the song is what he said, and were like stop, stop right there we've got to write this down. I think sometimes you just have to go through something like this in a writing session, talk unfiltered. I think that's what happened writing "Fall Apart". There is a restaurant in Nashville and when you sit down to eat there are these tall windows you can see who's walking by. He was walking by and we saw his ex with someone else. We were like don't look. The great thing though that it was never intended to be pitched. Casey heard it from a friend of a friend, his producer at the time actually heard the demo and loved the song. Can I play this for Casey?, then we get a call from Casey and said, "Guys, I got to have this song!" Well, I'm not going to lie I had a small melt down when this happened, I did too, Josh replies. We're really invested in our songs and didn't want to give it away. Then we went out on the road with Casey during the Taylor Swift tour and really got to know him, he's the most genuine guy. I feel that God put us together for a reason, so you deserve this song.

 

You have a following with a younger crowd, are you hoping to reach a broader audience?  Honestly, it's one of those things that I feel is starting to come naturally which is awesome. It's one of those things with the new music that we're writing. When we started out with the Carter Twins stuff we were so young and I think it's a natural progression, we were 13, I mean we're still young, we're only 24. Our music was young, we were young and it's only natural to progress with age. What we're writing now are situations we're going through now and a lot of people can relate to whether your in your 20's , 48 or 50.

 

What can you tell me about the new material your writing now?  You know, like I said it's the stuff we're going through , it's what our friends are going through. There are so many possiblities. You can do whatever. I feel like the younger generation our age range in country music the lines are blurred. The new stuff we're writing now  fits our style through our influences and it's fun to see that. Also, to let the fans hear it and what they think of it.

 

 

Have you written for other artists? Yes ! , Yeah, it's a funny story, we were tapped to write for the girl group 5th Harmony. Their record label talked to our publisher, I know Kingston writes, let's see if they want to write for 5th Harmony and we said, "let's try it." Imagine 4 dudes in a room trying to write an old school Destiny's Child pop song. I've never put Louie Vutton in a song. It was like a shot in the dark experience for us. Sometimes it's fun to go outside of your box and see how far you can venture out. You learn and grow from it and think maybe I can do this.

 

What are you most looking forward to in the new year, in 2015?  We're getting out on the road, we're probably going to do some dates with Casey [ James ] and go out with some friends. We were out last year with our friend John Oats, um, probably just touring and working on an EP. Right now were not sure if we're going to release it. We're in the process of label shopping right now and maybe find a home. "No label! You need a record label", I spoke firmly.  Honestly folks, Kingston wants us to blow it up in 2015 and get them on the radar in country music. These Ohio home town fellas want us to back them up ! I'm all for it !!

 

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