Catch up with No Dry County's Trent Langford and listen to single "Till The Wheels Fall Off" from The Night Before, available now.
What brought the band together?
Trent Langford: I was asked to join NDC in 2009 and strangely enough there are no longer any original members in the band. The group has kind of evolved over the last six years with a number of Lubbock musicians coming and going. Our current lineup has been together for 2 years and this is our first album together.
Any artists or bands you take inspiration from?
Stylistically bands like U2, The Head and the Heart, Rodney Parker & Fifty Peso Reward, Foo Fighters and Sons of Bill provide plenty of genius we find ourselves drawing from. The list of songwriters could go on for days but I’ll limit it to Robert Earl Keen, Ryan Adams, Jason Isbell and Paul Overstreet.
How would you describe your sound?
It’s difficult for me to describe our own sound but others have called it melodic but gritty at times, guitar driven with an emphasis on harmonies and I wouldn’t argue with those assessments.
Is there a song from The Night Before that stands out for you? A favorite to have written or to perform?
“Till The Wheels Fall Off” is one of my favorites simply because we’ve never done anything with that type of groove before. We were able to get some really sweet tones from the guitars on that record and the lyrics have a vulnerability that helps make the concept of the song credible.
What's the best compliment you've received from a fan since releasing the album?
We’ve had a handful of other musicians and people who are in a somewhat transient stage of life say the album relates well to those of us in uncertain times, periods of transition etc. I have a friend who is a truck driver and his response was that the record “helped me wrap my head around the last ten years of my life.” I thought that was pretty cool.
How would you sum up The Night Before in one sentence?
The album is an honest look at the band both lyrically and musically and is the best depiction of our live show that we’ve been able to capture in studio to this point.
What do you hope to do with your music?
I don’t know that we ever established set goals for our music other than for it to be well written and in tune. We obviously have some milestones that we’d like to reach as a band but that’s purely a business minded approach to art, which is not a reason to make it. We started making music because it’s something inside of us that needs to get out. The first song I wrote as a 15 year old kid was after the death of a friend and I found that attempting to express those emotions through music was the best way for me to cope with or try to comprehend the situation. If there are ancillary benefits to our work that’s an added bonus but as long as we have something to say and there are people with a desire to listen, then that’s what we want to “do” with our music.
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