About to Pop: Love and Theft

Eight Questions With Love and Theft:

Brian, how did Taylor Swift first hear about you guys and what was it like to get the kind of backing from a major mega star like her?

Brian Bandas: Well, I tell you what, we have a couple friends in the industry, namely Rick Barker and Blake McDaniel, who have been supporters of us from an early, early stage. They passed our music on to her and she just loved it, and being the sweet girl that she was, she believed in us and she brought us on. We played a couple shows with her at the beginning of last year. They went very well and she felt like we really helped her show go to another level, so she kept bringing us out the rest of the year. It was absolutely the kind of lift and boost we needed at that stage in our career. It really gave us the confidence and exposure that we needed.

That sounds like a really good opportunity, how did you all meet?

Stephen Barker Liles: We actually met in Nashville through the songwriting community. Once you move here and start doing music the town kind of shrinks. So we kind of met through Robert Soral and Kannan Smith and some other mutual friends and started working together and just very naturally fell right into place. We all grew up from a young age singing harmonies and all became runaways and moved here to Nashville. Once we started working together things moved very fast. That's kinda that.

Eric, when you guys first sang together, what was that like?

Eric Gunderson: Well, it was pretty cool, it was a goose bumps moment. We had recorded a song called 'Drowning' and it was the first time we had really heard a recorded version of the song. When we pressed play, the speakers kinda played back what we just recorded. Actually, they didn't "kinda" play back, they REALLY REALLY played it back. We all got goose bumps and it was the moment we all realized that this is what we needed to be doing, and it was very exciting for us.

What was the craziest thing you've ever seen on tour?

EG: We were on tour in Michigan and it was one of the nights where we didn't really announce that we were signing, but we got out there and people saw us and they started sprinting from all around the lobby. There were these two little girls, I would say they were probably 13 or 14 years old, and they were pulling each other's hair and literally punching each other in the face to try and get through the line. So I grabbed both of them, moved them up against the wall and I made them wait for like an hour before we would sign an autograph for them. It was actually probably a good thing for them because I talked to them the whole time. One was on one side and one was on the other so they probably thought I was cool, but I was trying to be a disciplinarian.

Has there been an artist whose career you would like to emulate?

BB: I'm sure that we would all have a different answer to that, I know that I admire a lot of guys like Brad [Paisley] and Keith and even John Mayer who have been able to have commercial success but also really make a name for themselves as guitar players.

SBL: And as far as marketing wise, the Beatles. I know that its like "the sin" to say anything about the Beatles when your covering yourself, but they didn't let one country stop them from making their music. They went and spread their music to the whole world and that's something that I hope one day were able to do.

EG: I'd say, as far as like longevity goes, George Strait has been doing this forever it seems like, and he's one of the biggest legends in country music, so I think we'd definitely like to emulate our career after his.

Where did you guys learn to sing harmonies?

EG: We all grew up in church and we all started singing from a young age. In my case, my dad would always sing the melody and my mom would always sing the alto harmony. I think from hearing that for years it just kind of came naturally after awhile. And Brian comes from a musical family as well.

BB: We used to like do stuff in the car, it was a game. My mom would sing two notes and be like, how far apart is that? And we would be like, oh, two and a half steps -- stuff like that, which to us was like a game, but little did we know we were learning a lot about music theory.

SBL: Yeah, we used to sing a lot in the car everywhere we went.

BB: Like, if you guys have seen the movie 'Stepbrothers' ... just kidding!

Who would be your dream tour mates?

SBL: I think the answer would be different for each of us, but I think as far as the band goes right now, we all think it would be great to tour with Keith Urban, which would be awesome. Tim McGraw would be amazing, the Eagles for sure. No, that would be bad -- we would get shown up every night. They are the Eagles! Whatever, I mean it would still be the coolest thing ever to open for them. You can't mess with their five-part vocal harmonies.

What artist do you listen to that might come as a surprise to your fans?

We all listen to an eclectic mix of stuff to broaden our horizons, we like a bunch of stuff: Imogen Heap, Apple City, Carter, Lil Wayne, Copeland, Andrea Bocelli, Yanni, [Luciano] Pavarotti -- we listen to the variety, yeah everything.