Slow Roll: New Duo Everette Bringing Laidback to Country
It’s a country music story about two kids from Kentucky chasing a dream.
Call it cliche or classic, but the foundation of new Broken Bow Records duo Everette – comprised of Brent Rupard and Anthony Olympia – is built on a guitar lesson. That’s how lead singer Rupard first met Olympia, a classically trained guitarist, who was taking on fellow Kentucky students such as Rupard in the early Millennium.
Lessons aside, the duo’s musical chemistry was immediate and led them to Bowling Green, where the two cut their teeth in a local music scene that prepared them for their mega leap to Music City in 2011. And as Nashville’s been known to be a “seven year town” for musicians, Everette was right on the mark when they teamed with BBR in February 2018.
That month, the duo debuted their song “Slow Roll” for industry professionals at Country Radio Seminar and even held a public signing of their contract at CRS’s BBR showcase – an event that featured country stars such as Dustin Lynch, Jason Aldean, Lindsay Ell, Granger Smith and more.
Everette introduced “Slow Roll” and their musical style as “back porch rock and roll;” a laid-back, sometimes swampy, jam band-infused style of country.
“That song feels right for us,” Rupard tells Taste of Country. “I had that title ‘Slow Roll’ for a bit. I get in a rush and impatient sometimes and I feel like in society today, people are on social media all the time and trying to keep up with this person and that person and constantly going. So I wanted to write a song about leaving your worries behind and doing things at your own pace.”
“Slow Roll,” penned by Rupard, Chris Dubois and Clint Lagerberg, not only became Everette’s signature song, but is also the name of their five-song Slow Roll EP, which dropped midsummer. So far the duo believes the song is the perfect representation of what their style is and where they’re headed musically.
“The first time I heard ‘Slow Roll,' it was right after we started this project,” Olympia tells Taste of Country. “We had stayed up all night, working on three new tunes we were demoing and the next morning Brent was like, 'Check out this song. I don’t know if you think it’d be cool for us?' I listened to it and said, 'We would we be stupid if we don’t record this song.'”
Cowriting the bulk of their material, Everette plans to finish their full-length album before the end of 2018, with an early 2019 release date. However, like “Slow Roll,” the duo plans to work at their own pace and “get it right.”
“Our label gives us a lot of creative freedom,” Rupard tells Taste of Country. “That was a big deal for us because we produce our own stuff and we wanted to have freedom to create the way we want to create. … I don’t know if we would’ve signed if that wasn’t part of the deal.”
After their 2019 release, the duo also expects a substantial tour to occur shortly after. Falling in line with the bulk of new acts, Everette will most likely land an opening slot for a more established country star. However, Olympia jokes, “Maybe Celine Dion?”
Did You Know? Rupard and Olympia named the band Everette after George Clooney’s character in the 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?
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