Do you want to know the best way to begin an interview with one of today’s most promising young artists? Me too. I bet it’s not getting the name of his EP wrong in the first ten seconds of the interview. Luckily, thanks to the voodoo of editing you will never know about that. Oh….wait. Nevermind.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Ashley Clark. Genuinely one of the nicest, most unassuming, burgeoning talents peddling his wares around Nashville these days. Ashley talks about growing up in a family band with 11 children, touring with Carrie Underwood, working with Mutt Lange, his thoughts on the state of today’s country music, and recording in the Bahamas.
Greyhound is the record available now from this singer, songwriter, and skilled musician. Below are a few highlights from our candid discourse, but I implore you to listen to the full podcast interview at the bottom of this page.
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How did you get hooked up with Carrie Underwood:
When I was in the Clark Family Experience we opened up for Little Big Town, before they were big, and there bass player remembered me somehow. I don’t even know how he got my number. I just left Virginia to Nashville to pursue music on my own, to do something in music, and he got my phone number somehow and I got a random phone call and I didn’t even know what American Idol was. I was playing for James Otto, For Shedaisy, I was kinda just saying yes to anything. So I get this call from this guy and he goes, “hey, you’re a background singer right?”, and I was just saying yeah. He said, “you play the fiddle?” I say yeah, yeah. He says, “great. There’s this girl named Carrie Underwood, she just won American Idol, do you want to take the gig?” I was like, “Uh, yes.” And next thing I knew we were on Jay Leno, David Letterman, SNL.
Having already been on the road with such big names how was getting to work with Mutt Lange:
I was a little starstruck because there’s such a myth that’s around Mutt. He’s like the Howard Hughes of music. Just getting to know him it took me a while to get used to. And we’ve become such great friends he’s taken me to two Super-bowls.
Did you always know the kind of sound you were going for, or did Mutt work that up in the studio:
He did his own thing with it. I would just write on acoustic guitar and he would just take it and do his thing to it.
Greyhound is a “Pop Country” record. Is pop authentic in your eyes:
Yeah, I grew up listening to Brian Adams and Shania Twain. There’s so many different styles of music I love and pop is one of them. On this record it’s like pop country, and if I get to make another record we might switch it up and do something a little more rootsy and earthy. It’s just what it is for this time.
You’ve watched Nashville change first hand:
It’s crazy. It’s a whole new town. I don’t know if I like it or not. Cranes everywhere. I do like it at times, but then at times I’m just like, what about all the old stuff? I just hope they don’t tear down the Spence Manor, Elvis stayed there.
How about recording in the Bahamas:
It took awhile to record because when you’re in the Bahamas you don’t really have a concept of time. Everything’s just lazy. It’s so hot. We just told so many stories down there. So many that we forgot to record sometimes.
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Thank you to Ashley Clark for taking the time to talk with us. Hear the full interview below and go find Greyhound on iTunes, Google Play, or AshleyClarkOfficial.com
One Response
I love this interview! Ashley has an amazing sexy talking voice! Amazing singing voice!!