In Conversation with: Two Weeks in Nashville
House of Coco’s Music Editor Emma Harrison spoke to up-and-coming band ‘Two Weeks in Nashville’ about social distancing gigs, songwriting, dealing with social media trolls and their musical influences.
House of Coco
Tell our readers who you are, your age, where you are from and what you play on the band.
Two Weeks In Nashville (TWIN)
We are Two Weeks In Nashville. I am lead singer and guitarist, Billy LeRiff, aged 21 from Lingfield. Yo, I’m Jonny Faires, also 21 and from Smallfield. Bonjour, I am Marc De Luca and for you I am 23 and from France. Hey I am Ian Wilson, age 22 and from Romsey.
House of Coco
Loving the introductions! Tell me, how did the band come together?
TWIN
Ian and I [Billy] actually met a few years ago whilst studying music at ACM, then I met Jonny through a producer. We were all in different bands at the time, but I wanted to start a group with likeminded guys.
We were all into the same 60s/70s rock music and as soon as we started jamming something like that came out! It wasn’t until late last year that we found Marc whilst looking for a guitarist online. He had only just moved to the UK from France with the dream to be a chef. After a tasty three courses and one rehearsal we knew the band was born… think it was the meal that did it!
House of Coco
That sounds amazing! I have heard about some of the dishes that Marc has prepared and I am very impressed!
Your bands name is after spending time recording in Nashville. How special was it to be recording in such an iconic place?
TWIN
It was really special! We had heard so much about it that going there was really living in a dream. If you haven’t been, we couldn’t recommend it enough. There’s such buzz, it was full of welcoming people with a passion for life and in most cases music! It is Music City, and now not just country music.
Just heading to the studio in the morning in a big American truck and driving down the wide highways was so exciting. It was hard for it not to influence our playing and our music. We owe Nashville a lot! We really found the beginnings of our sound there and our band name!
House of Coco
Talk to us about the process of songwriting? Is it a collaborative approach or do certain band members take the lead on this?
TWIN
The songwriting process is always different for each track.
It’s been a collaborative process for us, between the four of us and close friends.
We are inspired by what’s going on around us, some about what we’ve been going through individually and others about what close friends are going through; lyrically that’s what feels true to us and something we want to share we others who might be feeling the same way.
Musically though it could just be a riff or melody that sparks and we know we’ve got something worth working on if we can’t stop jamming it!
House of Coco
You are influenced by the likes of The Rolling Stones and U2 – what is it that you like about this style of music? For me they are iconic and are two of the best bands that I have ever seen live. What do you think you can learn from them and what in your opinion was the best ever gig that you have been to?
TWIN
It’s really the energy and rawness that inspires us from The Stones and U2. With The Stones we love their image and personality of each player that come through both on the record and live. U2 we love for the way they’ve evolved and modernised their sound. They all take risks and I think that’s what’s missing in rock music today. Best gig would have to be The Stones for me, or The Flaming Lips; that was a mental show, they know how to perform!
House of Coco
I agree, U2 and The Rolling Stones for me are up there in terms of putting on a show.
Your latest single ‘Homeward Bound’ is amazing- congratulations! What can we expect from the album?
TWIN
Thank you! I think you can expect more of the same energy from the record. The album was recorded in Nashville last year and is called, ‘Paper Planes and Razor Blades’.
Being heavily influenced by the time we spent there, we’re hoping it brings some hope and positivity to people! I think everyone needs some positivity at the moment. We had such a great time writing and recording it and we hope you can hear that in this record.
House of Coco
You definitely can and having seen you play live too at your recent gig supporting The Hoosiers this definitely translates to live performances too.
As a band, you are working and living together. Can that be too much sometimes?
TWIN
Yes, we’re essentially four best friends living and working together under the same roof. It’s inevitable that at times things could get too much, but I think we manage to get the balance right.
To be honest, we feel very lucky to have been able to live together this year, it has meant we’ve been able to keep working on music and content. It’s all been great practice, so it’s safe to say that we’re pretty ready for touring now too!
House of Coco
You recently played a socially-distanced gig in Bournemouth and you did have one planned in London for later this month, supporting The Hoosiers which has been postponed due to London going into Tier 3 sadly.
How was the Bournemouth gig and did you take a slightly different approach to things with regards to all the socially distanced shenanigans!?
TWIN
The Bournemouth Hoosiers show was a surreal one. It was at a super cool venue, Madding Crowd, and was an all a new experience to live music, very Covid safe with plastic shielding around each of us on stage!
Safety was no accident that night. Can’t quite believe we’re playing with them again (rescheduled for 11th February). That’s gonna be a wicked show!
House of Coco
I will try and pop down and see you play. If you could describe each band member in three words what would those words be?
TWIN
Marc- Vive la révolution
Jonny- Spoons meal deal
Billy- Look, Billy Idol!
Ian- Live laugh love
House of Coco
Laughing so hard at this! Clearly Chef de Luca wouldn’t be a Spoons Meal Deal would he?!
Other meal deals are available (subject to availability)
This is very intriguing indeed!
You create a lot of fun videos on social media such as the ‘bedtime stories’ and learning French the De Luca way.
Who comes up with these ideas and what can we expect moving forwards?
TWIN
We just listen to what the people want! The key is to read between the lines; the inspiration for the bedtime stories was someone leaving the comment “this band suck, only two seconds of listening to them and I want to die” on one of our videos.
Now we could have taken that comment at face value, but we read between the lines: “this band are really good, but I can only manage two seconds of listening to them because I am so damn tired! Someone please help me sleep!!!”.
And obviously we wanted to help, so we recorded them some bedtime stories. Haven’t heard anything back from them so they must be catching up on some much needed rest!
House of Coco
Wow! That’s brutal, but it’s good that you have done something positive and lovely out of it.
Did you always want to be musicians? How long have you been playing?
TWIN
I [Ian] originally wanted to be a surgeon when I was younger, but the years of training twinned with the job insecurity made me chose something a little more reliable. But I know for the other boys it’s been their life’s passion. We all took up our instruments relatively early in life, apart from Marc who’s going to start learning the guitar soon.
House of Coco
Good luck with that Marc!
So, if you weren’t musicians – what would you want to do?
TWIN
Marc would go back to leaving negative reviews on Amazon, Billy would pursue dance, Ian would be a landlord and Jonny would be that guy who isn’t related to your parents but you still call uncle.
House of Coco
Intrigued by the dance? I am thinking interpretative but this is just a punt! Well, if Fatima can do cyber, Jonny can certainly be ‘that guy’. There has to be a grant for that for sure!
OK, so for the readers that haven’t heard of Two Weeks in Nashville – how would you describe your sound?
TWIN
If The Rolling Stones had grown up watching “Come Outside” instead of post war Britain.
House of Coco
I get it! Which musicians (dead or alive) would you most want to collaborate with?
TWIN
Dream touring band:
John Bonham (auxiliary percussion)
Amy Winehouse, Janice Joplin, Seal (backing vocals)
John Lennon, BROOKFIELD and Mozart (organ, synth, piano)
Louis Armstrong, Maceo Parker, Miles Davis (Horn section)
House of Coco
Some strong choices there. Bonzo definitely would be my percussion choice for sure.
As well as sounding great, you have a very strong image and always look great. How important is the aesthetics to you?
TWIN
To be honest we just wear on stage whatever we turn up to the venue in! But thank you, that is a lovely compliment.
House of Coco
You are very welcome!
We have a show on 11th February 2021 supporting The Hoosiers at The Clapham Grand and a rescheduled show in London on 13th January supporting The Touch.
Other than that, there’s talk of some singles, an album and as many live shows as our touring Corsa can handle! Thank you for the interview and we wish you all the best for a much better 2021!
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