and its success over the last 20 years:By M. MacPherson
I recently contacted Gregg “Hobie” Hubbard and talked about Sawyer Brown band and its success over the last 20 years:
Northmusic: Sawyer Brown has had very little turn over within the band. In fact, you’re part of a group with the longest uninterrupted run as a band in country music. Why do you think you’ve held together?
Hobie: Actually, there are 4 of the 5 of us that have been together since day one. Mark and I are from FL, Mark and I have known each other since junior high. The bass player is from Michigan, the drummer’s from Maine and the guitar player is from South Dakota. So we are kind of from all over the place.
It’s an interesting thing. Bands seem to have a short life. Of course you have exceptions with bands like Alabama or the Oak Ridge Boys, Charlie Daniels, but I think it’s a matter of friendship--it helps a ton and respect for each other and a shared vision of what we want to do. We still believe in the music we are making and that can help you weather a whole lot of storms. It’s much more important than if we can’t agree on where we want to eat dinner.
Northmusic: One of the first breaks the band got was winning “Star Search.” What do you think of today’s version of this show, American Idol or Nashville Star? What about the quality of the talent coming from these shows?
Hobie: We were on the very first year that show was on. I haven’t seen Nashville Star to be honest, but American Idol I did watch this past year. I thought there was some great talent on there. I think Bucky Covington has a great future ahead of him. There’s still a lot of great music in him.
Certainly there was a much brighter spotlight on that particular show then was on Star Search the year we were on. It wasn’t like you were picking up a newspaper or magazine and seeing a story on it. You gotta remember these are basically kids in their early 20s, that’s a lot to be dealing with. That pressure of the television audience and what it may mean for your career – that’s a lot to be handling. I can almost guarantee that no one’s had the experience that can help you with that particular thing – it turns your world completely upside down when you go from where you come from to suddenly the entire country knows you by name.
Northmusic: And does the web increase that pressure?
Hobie: Yes, the web has made it an entirely different world. There’s that constant chatter on the web that just keeps the buzz going.
NorthMusic: Sawyer Brown was one of the first groups to use music videos?
Hobie: We did. In fact, when we did our first video, for “Step that Step”, there technically wasn’t a great outlet for country videos, so we were sort of way on the edge there. At that point, VH1 actually had about an hour a week when they would play some country videos. No CMT no Nashville Network.
It started towards the end of the first year we were together. The thing with the videos was we realized early on that if you take the time and can spend the money to make a good video, it just continues to keep your music out there. One other way for the fans to see who and what the band is and it’s a totally different art form than the CD and the records, so you have to approach it differently. Those sort of need to stand on their own and it was worth it. We worked with some great directors and made some really good videos and they get all the bragging rights on those. It’s all worth it because its just another way of keeping the music out there.
Northmusic: What groups or individuals have influenced Sawyer Brown?
Hobie: Oh gosh, a zillion! Beach Boys for harmonies, the Rolling Stones for a live show and their continuing ability to get out there and do it; in country, Charlie Daniels and the Dirt Band. Bands, like Alabama, that had long careers and still maintained good music. Tons of writers, whether it’s James Taylor, Elton John, the Eagles, Lyle Lovett, Mary Chapin Carpenter the list could go on and on.
NorthMusic: The band tends to write about some ordinary things and make a great song – example, “800 Pound Jesus” – great “visual” song? You give the listener a real “picture” of what you are singing about?
Hobie: Thanks, that’s a great compliment! Man, I think the ideas come hopefully from just every day stuff. “Eight Hundred Pound Jesus”, which I love is actually a Paul Thorne and Billy Maddox song, but in the songs that we write, as well as the songs we are looking for, you want that visual thing, you want that thing that clicks in your head, ‘Oh yeah I can see this’ or if it’s a line about a small town its one that you recognize, ‘oh wait this is thus’, you know the place--whether you’re the writer or the listener, it’s about finding that switch that will just go off in someone’s head as they recognize what you’re talking about. I read constantly, and as a reader, that’s what I love in books or magazine articles, whenever that thing, that light goes off in your head, ‘Oh I know exactly what that is!’ That’s what you’re looking for- those moments that are like that in songs.
NorthMusc: Is that what makes a song country rather then rock?
Hobie: I do think country is rooted in something that is real. It’s not just about clever words or just the beat or whatever. It really is about the visual component of what the listener can “see” or hear of themselves in that song. It’s rooted in real life. That’s the key I think.
NorthMusic: There has always been controversy about whether today’s country stars (like Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban or Rascal Flatts) are true country or more rock. What do you think?
Hobie: I think there is a lot of great music today. Keith Urban is truly one of my favorites. I think he’s a great writer and his CDs always sound really good and I think there is something he is trying to say with his music. So I’m a big fan. I don’t worry so much about the definition – whether it’s country enough. Lord knows we took a lot of grief for that over the years. I feel if people are making the music they feel is good, whether you like it or not is really the only category that counts
NorthMusic: Do you like song writing? Where do your ideas come from?
Hobie: There’s a good bit of writing that sort of goes on all the time, whether it’s just collecting ideas or just getting things started. In the beginning, we had such a small window of time, everything would have been collected before we ever went into the studio for the very first time. Now we’ll go in a little bit as we go, maybe we have a song or two and we go in an record, so it’s a much more gradual process. It gives you more time to live with material--which is a great thing. It’s a mixture of all of that. We have never said we are going to block out two months and do nothing but write. That’s a problem, maybe something comes, maybe it don’t. So you pretty much have to keep it going all the time best you can.
NorthMusic: How do pick songs from other writers?
Hobie: We have never said we are specifically looking for some items or want someone to write something for us. It’s more like keeping our ears open, listening for what other people have written and it’s just one of those things. We couldn’t give you a textbook definition of what we are looking for, but we know it when we hear it. There are songs that are really great songs, just not for us. That’s just listening and finding the stuff that will work for us. And that’s something we have gotten good at over the years. We know what works for us. You want to make sure it represents the spirit of the band. That’s one of the main things we look at and go from there.
NorthMusic: Are you planning to write or co-write more songs for the band?
Hobie: Oh yeah! Hopefully so. I pretty much whittle at writing all the time, so some days are more productive then others. But it’s truly a passion of mine, the writing end of things, as I know it is for Mark (Miller). I think that any time we put out a CD hopefully there will be stuff on there that we’ve worked on.
NorthMusic: Is there a new CD planned for the near future?
Hobie: I think we’ll work on one this coming year. We also want to do another Christmas CD because we loved the entire process doing that the first time we did one. Yeah, those are both things I hope to work on this coming year.
NorthMusic: You have some tour dates listed on the web for December, what comes after that? Any visits to New England?
Hobie: We have a mid-west kind of Christmas tour that we are going to do for a couple of weeks in December – that’s mostly in the frozen mid-west. I don’t know when the next time we’ll be up in New England, it’s a good spot. We did Connecticut and New York State back in the late summer. I’m sure there will be more scheduled.
NorthMusic: Is there one thing or reason you want fans to know that has kept you all going?
Hobie: Probably it’s them, the fans! There is really no way to thank people enough for taking the money to buy CDs and the time out of their lives to come to see us live. That’s what lets us do exactly what we want to do and we just don’t take that lightly. There is no night when you can be out there on the road and think, ‘well I’m just going to coast tonight’. You just can’t do that because for someone out there it might be the one time they’re going to see us and we want to make sure they have a good time. That’s really what it’s all about for us.
NorthMusic: You have a steady group of loyal fans that come out to the shows, and that now includes the kids of those fans coming to concerts. What’s that like?
Hobie: It’s been a great blessing. That’s the key to all of this really – it’s that people have cared enough to listen, they bring their friends and their families, and those families have grown and the kids are now adults in many of the cases, and it’s been really cool and we hope it continues that way.
NorthMusic: You have lots of albums, concerts and videos. plus awards--anything the band still wants to do?
Hobie: I think there is still music in us, just plain and simple. That’s been sort of the motivating factor since day one and is the thing that continues to keep us going. We feel there is still music in us that we want to make, that keeps the excitement level up when we are out on the road and when we’re working or writing in the studio—it’s that we still love doing this. That’s a great blessing. As a kid growing up I always feared, ‘what if you did music for a living and it took away you’re enjoyment of it.’ I wouldn’t be able to stand that – music is just too important to me. I really do believe there is still music we want to make, we’ll be just as excited to go back in to the studio with this next batch of stuff as we were the very first time we went in.
NorthMusic: Over the years, it seems all the band members have pursued different things when not performing?
Hobie: Yes. It gives us a nice balance. In the beginning, we were on the road so much, 275 days a year, it just doesn’t give you much time for anything but that.. Now as we have had a more balanced tour schedule, it does allow everyone those opportunities. As a human being that‘s a great thing because it gives you a chance to do other stuff and continues to bring the joy that you bring with you to the music when its time to do that.
NorthMusic: What do you enjoy doing when not on the road?
Hobie: I love reading, going to the movies a good bit and trying to catch up on some of that, and I’m forever working in the yard – not today where its snowing and cold!
NorthMusic: Anything special you want for Christmas?
Hobie: I’m going to get what I want for Christmas which is a week with my nephews. So I think spoiling my nephews for a week is exactly what I wanted this year, it will be great!