Spotlight: Ward Thomas
How did growing up in a musical family influence your songwriting and performance style?
We grew up with our parents both in a band performing 60s/70s rock classics like The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, etc., all harmony-focused bands/artists. So I guess that was a big influence on the style of our singing and songwriting. We were taught to have fun on stage and to always be ourselves completely, which has definitely played a part in our performance within our shows.
What is it like to be British country musicians in Nashville?
It’s really great. Especially now, every time we go to Nashville, we meet more British artists building their careers over there, which just shows how the country genre is becoming more and more popular globally. Eleven years ago, when we started going over there, it was a different story. Nashvillians were pleasantly surprised to see two Brits attempt a British stamp on country music.
You’ve got an acoustic UK tour coming up in early 2025. What made you decide to do a more ‘intimate’ tour?
We did this set-up last year, and it worked really well with our songs. We both loved the intimate connection with the audience. It gave us a lot of freedom to show new material, tell the in-depth stories of a lot of the songs, and it was also a great challenge to build a headline show with a stripped-back set-up, which we’ve found to be a lot of fun. We’re looking forward to creating another show with new elements added to it.
You both got married over the past few years. How has that impacted your songwriting?
I guess a lot of things have changed in a small amount of time, so we both write about the stage of life we’re in, like we’ve always done. For example, at each of our weddings, we wrote a song for one another as our speech, and those two occasions were written as individuals, not together. So that was very different.
What did you learn from your ‘Quarter Life Crisis’?
That it was okay not to have it all figured out at the age of 24, haha. We look back now and enjoy the headspace we were in whilst writing that song.
How did you end up working with Kezia Gill?
As we’re both country artists, we’ve crossed paths a few times, and we thought her voice would suit this song really well, so we reached out and asked if she’d be up for singing on it. She was also joining us on tour, so it was perfect timing.
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