High Valley Details Life on the Road
From their go-to truck stop snacks to their favorite shows to binge-watch, High Valley gave us some insight into their lives on the open road.
For many years, Canadian country duo High Valley has traveled through much of the Great White North, the United States, and even Europe, to bring their music to country fans everywhere. This fall, the “She’s With Me” singers will embark on SiriusXM’s The Highway Finds Tour as the headlining act. The prospect of being the main act on the bill is a big deal for brothers Brad and Curtis Rempel, who’ve been honing their craft for many years.
“Every time we headline a fair or something like that, I always forget that all the people that are here at the show, they’re actually here to see us,” Curtis told Sounds Like Nashville during a recent interview. “That still blows my mind. And now we’re kicking off this entire tour of that.”
“If the show sucks, we can’t blame it on the headliner,” added Brad with a laugh.
The opportunity to headline the tour, with special guests Ashley McBryde and Adam Doleac, will allow the duo to hit venues and cities they’ve never had the opportunity to play in until now.
“We’re playing New York City, and we’re playing Los Angeles. That’s just such a … it’s mind-boggling to me that that’s happening,” Brad admitted. “But it’s gonna be a lot of fun, and Ashley McBryde is awesome, Adam Doleac is awesome. We’re gonna introduce some people to new artists. And a lot of people, I think, it’ll be their first time seeing us live because we just haven’t been in these cities.”
Ahead of the tour, Sounds Like Nashville caught up with High Valley to see how they survive life on the road, from their favorite snacks to the shows they binge-watch in their down time. Here’s what they had to say…
What’s your favorite snack while on the road?
Brad: Larabars, Oatmega bars.
Curtis: I do love the Vega protein peanut butter chocolate bars.
Brad: Bars, bars, bars.
Curtis: I mean, if I ate whatever I wanted, which I don’t, but if I did, it would just be like Oreos all the time.
What do you binge-watch while on tour?
Brad: This Is Us on Hulu.
Curtis: The last thing I binge-watched though, because This Is Us hasn’t been on TV for a while, was Underground.
Brad: We watched Anne with an E, the Netflix version of Anne of Green Gables, because we were taking my kids to Prince Edward Island, where Anne of Green Gables was filmed. So before we went, we binge-watched the whole series of Anne with an E. And then the whole time we were on the island, we could be like, ‘Oh, this is where that happened’ and ‘This is where that happened.’
What do you do to pass the time on the road?
Curtis: Interviews.
Brad: Usually like 300 interviews a day on the phone. And when we were in Germany, I was writing songs on the road. That actually has killed a bunch of time.
Curtis: Dave, our bass player, he’ll read jokes from Buzzfeed, and we’ll just laugh our heads off.
What’s your go-to truck stop purchase?
Brad: You’re gonna make fun of me, but the main thing I’ve ever bought at a truck stop in the last two years is Naked Juice Green Machine.
Curtis: Yeah, it’s not very truck-stoppy. This is what I always do… I go find the Hershey milk chocolate and almond bars, and then I don’t buy it. I just look at it for a bit.
Do you guys have any horror stories from the road?
Brad: I think the worst ever is we were on tour with Phil Vassar and Craig Morgan back in the day. And we -
Curtis: That’s not the worst part. That was just the setting….
Brad: Yeah (laughs), and we were gonna fly back to Nashville after the last show in Colorado. And Phil said, ‘You can jump on my bus.’ And I’m thinking, ‘This is Phil Vassar! And a bus!’ We’d never been on a bus. This was like six years ago or something. So we’re like, ‘Yes, please!’ So we get on his bus, we wake up, we’re nowhere near Nashville. As a matter of fact, we’re broke down. We had to get in a 15-passenger van, drive for a couple hours to a different airport, and ultimately still fly back to Nashville. I don’t know what the moral is that we were supposed to learn. I guess when somebody cool and famous invites you to travel luxuriously, stick with Southwest.
Curtis: Recently we were at a festival, and I was feeling a little under the weather, so after our set, I took a nap. And then Dierks Bentley was just finishing his set, so I rolled out of my bunk in my pajamas and went up on stage. It’s black outside, doesn’t matter what I’m wearing. I got sleep lines on my face and I’m just wearing who knows what. He brings us to the front of the stage to wave at everybody.
Brad: Had we known, we would’ve been wearing three-piece suits instead of pajamas.
Is it easier for you to sleep on the bus or in your bed at home?
Brad: At home in a bed.
Curtis: Yeah, definitely. If I slept on a bus every single night for like 10 nights in a row, and then continued for like 30 days, I would probably sleep amazing. But the bus bed, something about it, once you get used to it, it’s unbelievable. But if you don’t take time to get used to it, it is never perfect.
Keep up with High Valley on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Fans can visit the duo’ website for a complete list of tour dates.
