The Daily Reveille sat down with Eli Young Band bassist Jon Jones to talk new music, performing in Baton Rouge and their upcoming album. Eli Young Band will be performing at The Texas Club on March 3.
Eli Young Band’s latest single, “Saltwater Gospel,” was released last summer and fans have been craving new music since. They are currently testing some of their new material at live shows ahead of their fifth studio album release, which will hopefully be soon.
The Daily Reveille: You guys have been nominated for – and won – several awards and have toured all over the world. Being from small town Texas, do things like that still feel surreal or are y’all used to it at this point?
Jon Jones: “I don’t think we’ll ever get used to it. I think for some bands or artists it feels like old hat and watching them you can tell that it’s nothing special to them. But maybe because we started in college together as four friends playing at a local dive bar for free beer, I think any of those big moments really kind of hit us heavy because they’re like, my goodness, how far have we come? Everything from winning an ACM, to going and playing 30 stadiums on tour with Kenny Chesney, to getting to travel overseas and play the late night shows and all that stuff, it’s been a pretty surreal road we’ve been on for a long time now.”
TDR: Your latest single “Saltwater Gospel” released last summer, when can fans expect new music?
JJ: “Yeah, it released at the end of last summer. We are fixing to get a new song out here soon, actually just finished the conference call about that yesterday. The new record, though, has been done for a while now, we’ve been sitting on it since midway through last year. So for us, we’re just trying to find the path of least resistance to get this thing out to our fans. If we don’t get it out soon it’s gonna feel old to us before anyone even hears it and that would be a shame. So we’re starting to play a few of the songs live, but you never want to play too much if no one really knows it. They’re really great songs though, and they’re gonna start seeing the light of day here one at a time pretty quickly. So ‘Saltwater Gospel’ was the last single released to radio but people should see new music here really soon.”
TDR: How do you think the sound of the new record is going to compare to your older music?
JJ: “I think this record will hold up much better side to side with albums like ‘Jet Black & Jealous’ and others from a few records ago. We did some experimenting with some sounds and this record was coming full-circle back to what made us the band that broke out from Texas. We have a certain identity, and it was just about finding that again and trusting that there’s a reason that that has always worked for us. This record feels new and fresh but it also feels comfortable, like who we were in the beginning.”
TDR: How are y’all expecting the sales of the new album to hold up with the success of your previous ones?
JJ: “I don’t know. It’s so weird with sales and numbers in the music industry. We tend to gauge most of what we do by asking ourselves ‘Are fans happy with the music and are people motivated to come see us live?’ Plus, I think streaming is so much bigger than it used to be. So it’ll be tough to beat the sales, but as far as whether more people are listening to it, that’s what matters to us, however they get the music.”
TDR: Any word on an album title or release date?
JJ: “Nope. But it’s felt like a long time coming, and finally yesterday it’s started to feel like the conversations moving forward and I think everyone’s feeling like sooner is better than later.”
TDR: Y’all are coming to Baton Rouge on March 3, what do you like about playing here and at small venues like the Texas Club?
JJ: “The energy. The energy you get from the audience is so much different than what you get playing a stadium or a big open field or whatever. You can actually see most of the faces and gauge reactions so much better. Plus, I know we tend to feed off of the crowd and Baton Rouge always has so much life and energy, it definitely helps our show.”
TDR: What stops do you guys have after Baton Rouge that you’re looking forward to?
JJ: “Actually, I don’t know. We just found out yesterday that we’re nominated for an ACM award this year, which is great. But that means we’re having to change a few plans so we can make it for the show, because that’s always a fun thing to go to. It’s a little different too that we’re not going out on tour with anybody this year. We’re just kind of doing our own thing, so it’s gonna be some clubs, theatres, fairs, festivals and a little bit of everything in between. Then at some point in there we’ll be releasing the new record.”
