Introducing… Natalie Stovall and The Drive
There’s a new country band in town! Meet Natalie Stovall and The Drive…If you haven’t heard of them yet, you will soon.
The five-piece band, which has been included on numerous “Ones to Watch” lists for the new year, is making waves with their infectious debut single, “Baby Come On With It.” The song, which is spinning on Sirius XM’s The Highway, is an up-tempo toe-tapper and urges everyone to let the stresses of life go and have a good time.
We recently caught up with Stovall, the group’s lead vocalist and fiddle player, to chat about the band’s debut, life on the road, and more. Check out our interview below.
CMIL: What’s the story behind your debut single, “Baby Come On With It?”
NS: We were stockpiling all the songs that I had written and I was listening to a lot of different songs and just searching anywhere and everywhere for music and just trying to make sure that we have the best music possible for our first EP. I came across “Baby Come On With It” – it was from a publishing company and they had played it for me. It was one of those things that the very first time I heard it, I knew it was this band and that’s something that’s very telling to me as a writer…When I hear a song and I immediately can hear us playing it and I know what it would sound like with our voice on it. It’s one of those things you just kind of know. It’s a really fun song because I feel like it really represents what we do on stage. We’re a live uptempo band that has played shows on the road for so long that it just seemed like a no brainer.
CMIL: Have you had a chance to hear it on the radio yet?
NS: I haven’t heard it in my car yet, but I did hear it for the first time on The Highway. I was purposely trying to hear it. I had been listening to their station for a while and I was in my living room thinking they were about to start playing the single at some point and I screamed. I knew it was going to happen at some point, but still when it came on I freaked and started dancing around my living room. It’s just something you think about for so many years when you do this and nothing really tops that feeling.
CMIL: You’ve been touring together for quite some time now. Does that make the national attention you are starting to get that much sweeter?
NS: I think that it’s a huge blessing that we’ve been out there for eight and half years touring and on the road and working for this all along, but not really knowing then when or how it’s going to happen. It definitely prepares you for it in ways nothing else can. It’s one of those things that you think about it and you dream about it every day, but you have a lot of time to really do it for the right reasons. We’d be out there playing two hundred dates a year regardless. That’s what we’ve been doing for eight and half years. It doesn’t really matter. It really is for the love of the music. I’d always hoped and we’ve always hoped as a band that we could grow that to an even larger audience and have even more opportunities to play for more people. There’s definitely no preparation like the road. Every venue is completely different. You never know what you’re walking into, but that’s the fun part of it too.
CMIL: Is the sound of the single similar to what fans can hear on the EP?
NS: It’s funny ‘cause for the EP we wanted to go ahead and get something out there for the tour because it has been way to long since we’ve released music. For the EP, it was interesting because we had already even more songs than we want to put on the full album and could even fit on just a six song EP, but we felt the need to just – I don’t know it kind of made sense with those six songs. We didn’t do a real ballad on there. We did some mid-tempos, but we didn’t put a straight up ballad because we are so live and energetic on stage and we really wanted the first thing that we put out to represent that of us. For the full album we already started working on that and we will have a ballad on there. It’s one of the songs that will be on the full album I just can’t wait to share with the world. The first time I heard it I was just stopped in my tracks and I knew that song was written for us to bring it to the world. I can’t wait to actually complete the full record and get that out there to everybody.
CMIL: You probably have to answer this a lot, but what’s it like being the only female on the road with four guys?
NS: It’s so easy. I do get asked that question a lot. I’ve thought about it a lot because it seems like a cop-out answer, but it’s so much fun. I wouldn’t have it any other way and I don’t really know any different, I guess. We all really, truly do love each other and we all are best friends. The reason that we make such great music together is because we all have a lot of fun together. Even when we have just spent sixteen hours on an overnight drive in the van and we get out and we play a show and we’re exhausted the first thing we do is hang out together. We always have to hang out before we can go to bed and catch some sleep. I don’t know we love each other and my band are brothers.
Fans can keep up with Natalie Stovall and The Drive on Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to visit their official website to learn more.
