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Emerson Drive

Emerson Drive is one of the hottest country acts out there. With the perfect look and sound, these five guys from Canada have been blowing up the scene. We sit down for an exclusive interview with lead singer Brad Mates for a quick look into where they are headed.

The band started out in high school in their small town in Canada around 1995. “It started out as just a fun thing,” Brad says. “We had no idea where this was going to take us. Obviously year after year the amount of work and energy that was going into the group eventually became a passion for us and really started to pay off. Looking back now over the last 12 years, things have gone by so quickly, these are definitely some of the best times we have ever spent and we are incredibly grateful for the opportunity. It was a tough climb for a while, trying to get a record deal and trying to get noticed but I think that all of that has paid off 10 times over, which is part of why we still enjoy doing this so much today.”

That climb towards the top is a tough one for any act, and for Emerson Drive it was no different. Initially playing in bars and clubs across Canada, they eventually got enough success and notoriety to make the jump to US markets. “After our third year, we started stretching out a little farther and into the US. The gigs were basically the same thing as before; a lot of bars and club rooms – six or seven days a week, five or six sets a night. We were doing that over 250 days out of the year. That was the point when we found out that this was something we may really want to do; that we could live together as a band, stay on the road and in the end really make it work. I think that is really the most important aspect of it in the long run, whether or not everyone in the group can get along on a personal level makes all the difference in the professional outcome of a band. You’ll basically have nothing to show for it if you don’t have your friends. It’s nice to know that we have found that common ground with one another and we know exactly how things work on the road with our band.”

Brad does say that sometimes the overwhelming success of things such as a Grammy Nomination and hit records can be somewhat daunting at times. “From the days in the beginning to when you finally get a record deal is the point where you kind of get sent back to square one again. You say goodbye to the days on the road and in the bars and clubs and your local fans and hello to the nationwide markets who have no idea who you are. To go from an unknown touring band to a signed act, being able to put singles on the radio to see how they do is obviously very exciting, but is also a little bit scary at the same time. I know we don’t have much space and it is a little hard to put a nutshell over the last 12 years, but the past seven years have been just simply through the roof. To be able to have songs that actually do well on the radio over the last four years has done wonders for our career.”

Keep an eye out for this hot band to become one of the next staples in country music superstars.

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