Last month, A Thousand Horses took over the Mane Stage at Stagecoach, firing up the crowd with their dynamic, animated persona.
“This is our first time out here, and to play such a big festival is incredible,” the band said. “We love playing festivals, it’s our favorite thing to do, so that vibe; that festi-vibe is something that we love.”
The band has been on an all-time high, with their first single, “Smoke,” coming in at No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart. This is the band’s first No. 1, and part of their 13-track debut album “Southernality,” that was released last year.
“I [Michael Hobby, the band’s lead vocalist] wrote it [Smoke] with Ross Copperman and Jon Nite — two songwriting buddies of mine in Nashville. Ross threw out that, well, Smoke could be a cool song, and then I threw out, ‘well, what if we made it about a relationship that’s toxic and compared it to the addictive nature of a cigarette?’”. “It’s a really special song for us; it’s a special song for me to have written it,” Hobby added.
When asked to define "Southernality," A Thousand Horses described it as “a night drive with the top down, a bucket of beers at a waterside roadhouse, a walk arm in arm next to moonlit breakers,” according to the band’s website. The name, Southernality, is actually a mix between the words southern and personality.
“Since we started the band, we kind of lived everything we write and sing, you know?” the band said. “‘Southernality’ is our story, like our experiences from the time we started the band and getting to write up until now. It’s great that we got to go out there and make the record and do something we love, and you know, make music.”
We recorded it over the span of about three and a half weeks at Zac Brown’s (one of the band’s guitarists and vocalists) studio in Nashville Southern Ground. ‘Southernality’ is now the title track, which is now our current single,” the band said. “The common thread for the record is Southernality, so the song kind of just tells its own story.”
Over the past few months, the band has been out on tour with Jason Aldean, joining him on his Six Strings Circus Tour along with Thomas Rhett. At the end of the tour, A Thousand Horses will have played in 27 cities across the country.
“We’ve been fans of Jason Aldean, so that was kind of the dream tour, basically, to land that,” the band said. “We’re super surprised and grateful that we got it. It’s a huge tour to be on, and it’s great for us because we’re in front of a lot of people every night. He is so supportive of us, and for him to pick us to be on the road with him the entire year, basically, is huge. We’re also excited for playing legendary places like playing two nights at Fenway Park with Jason Aldean and Kid Rock; that’s totally insane.”
Touring with Aldean is only the start of their voyage, as the band plans to go on their own headlining tour, making a brand new record and just continuing to make music.
“We’re really excited for our next record. We’ve been writing for it for awhile, and we’re really excited about all of the songs,” the band said. “The new record is gonna be awesome!”
