The 411 Magazine Issue 5 | Page 18

FEATURE London Backline Photography Lime Tree Music London Backline Photography London Backline Photography How did you guys meet and how did Holloway Road come into being?     We met back at school in 2001! Been playing in various bands ever since until we found our mutual interest in country music. Where does your love of country music come from?     We like great songs and songwriting and country music consistently produces great songs and great songwriting. How would you describe your style of country music?     The best in the UK. What influences your songwriting?     Everyday life always has a way of influencing our songwriting whether it's something that excites us or something that makes us feel like s**t. Who are your idols?     George Strait Until you guys came along I always thought of Holloway Road as part of the A1 running through North London!  What made you name the band after it?     Choosing a band name is always really hard and something that bands tend to overthink. We had a tube map in our hands at the time so we just closed our eyes and pointed. Good job it didn't land on Cockfosters. No matter how big you get you always make time to come home to Southend to play local gigs...      It's home, its where we are from. These people have been there from the start! Plus.. where else would we get to play for our mums? How difficult is it for a British country band to make their way on the country music scene which has its roots firmly planted in the US?  How do Nashville artists react to you?     We have been lucky enough to work with artists and writers from the states and there’s always been a mutual respect for each other. We all have the same end goal. We dig what they're doing and they are really into what we are doing. To what do you attribute the explosion in popularity of country music in the UK and increase in country music artists over the last 5 years?       Country music along with any genre is constantly evolving. we think that the modernisation of the genre has made it more accessible to both the younger and older generations of music lovers. The pre-conceived stigma of what country music is, is quickly being wiped out.  We think that people are now starting to realise that country music isn't just about old blokes in Stetsons on their front porch singing about constant heart break. You played to the largest satellite stage audience on the Entrance Stage at C2C 2017.  How did that feel and did you get a sense at the time of the scale of the crowd?      Hugely overwhelming! It was pretty damn cool to see how much we had grown over the last 3 years of appearing at the festival. Each year you've played C2C you've graduated to