Lance knew this could be his ‘hit duet’
During the whirlwind that is CMA Fest 2018, I found a quiet spot to talk with Lance Carpenter and Krystal Keith, two singer/songwriters who are currently making waves with their duet, ‘Anyone Else,’ released on the Show Dog-Universal Music label.
Lance hails from the family farm in Arkansas, but it wasn’t until he left home to go to college that he bought a used guitar at a local pawn shop and began to write songs. One day, he Googled ‘songwriting’ and found Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) and from that connection, he attended an NSAI Song Camp. Three years later, in 2011, he made the ‘official’ move to Nashville.
Although Krystal is the daughter of Toby Keith, she is definitely her own singer/songwriter. After taking two years away from performing to welcome her daughter, she is back full time, recording and touring. We met up and talked about what is new and exciting right now for Lance and Krystal.
This one of a series of interviews that I conducted with rising singer/songwriters during CMA Fest to find out about their new music, their musical influences and their experience at CMA Fest.
On the road with ‘Anyone Else’
Preshias Harris: What’s been happening in your career life since the single, ‘Anyone Else’ dropped?
Krystal Keith: We’ve been non-stop on the road. The single dropped in December and in January we went on our first radio tour date. We’ve been on the road pretty much four or five days a week since then. So, lots of travel.
PH: Do you like the travel aspect?
KK: I love to travel. I really do. And I have a two-year-old at home, so that’s the hardest part now, being a mom and being away from her. But thank God for my support system at home, taking care of her.
PH: Tell me, what’s the story behind your duet?
Lance Carpenter: ‘Anyone Else’ is a song I found on a ‘comp’ disc back in 2011 about, maybe, a month after moving to Nashville. Me and Forest [songwriter Forest Glen Whitehead] would get comp discs from publishers and writers, and we’d listen to them and hear what everyone was excited about. And this was track one on a disc. I heard it and I thought, if I ever cut a duet I’m recording that song. I wrote [a note] in my phone under ‘songs I would cut’ that day. Flash forward to 2016, I was in the studio recording songs for solo projects and I had an extra spot on the session. I knew that song by heart so I decided to record it. The next day, I thought I’d better call the [song] writers and make sure I can record the song. I hadn’t even asked them. They said, absolutely, go for it. They said, who are going to get for the duet part? I said, I have no idea. I’ll figure that out some other day. A little bit after that we started writing, and I heard Krystal had recorded a song that I’d pitched to her called ‘Resting Beach Face’ and one we wrote together called ‘I Got You.’ When I heard her singing in the studio, I said, there’s the voice for that song! I wonder if I can talk her into doing it. So I sent her an email. Crazy idea! And she said yes. It turned out amazing. Our teams loved it, and [Krystal’s] dad gave me a record deal.
‘Boulder’ set for July 13 release
PH: Give me some insight on your separate CDs and what’s going on with those.
KK: Yes, I have an EP called ‘Boulder’ coming out July 13, so this is my first project release since 2013 or 2014, so I’m really excited about it. It’s a five-song EP. ‘Anyone Else’ is on it and ‘Resting Beach Face,’ ‘I Got You,’ ‘Boulder’ and another really killer ballad called ‘Then It Started Raining.’ So, yeah! I’m excited!
LC: Right now, we’re focused on our single, ‘Anyone Else.’ We’ve been on a radio tour for twenty-one weeks. I’ve got some songs that I’ve recorded and whether we decide to work on an EP or a full album later this year – we haven’t even been talking about that. I’ve got an EP right now, called ‘Mustang,’ that the label released earlier this year. That’s got five songs on it. I co-wrote most of them. The one I didn’t write was the single. It was written by Emily Shackleton, Kelly Archer and Greg Bates, and it’s such a great song. I can’t wait to get more music out to the fans, but right now we’re pushing ‘Anyone Else’ to everyone else [on radio] and hopefully they’ll play it.
KK [laughing]: We’re both writers but we didn’t write this one!
PH: Tell me about your CMA Fest performance.
KK: Yeah, we’re super excited. We’re on the Chevy Breakout Stage on Friday morning. We’re going to do it together, so we’ve got a couple of songs each that are solo and then we’ll do our duet out there. This will be my third CMA Fest as a performer.
LC: It’s my first as a performer! I’m a newbie!
PH: Lance, you co-wrote ‘Love Me Like You Mean It’ that became a massive hit for Kelsea Ballerini. And Krystal, are you two going to be writing for other artists besides yourselves?
LH: Yeah, ‘Love Me Like You Mean It’ was a huge song that I wrote with Kelsea [and Forest Glen Whitehead and Josh Kerr]. When I’m in a room writing, the best song wins. I rarely sit down and say, ‘Let’s write a song for me today,’ or ‘Let’s write a song for me and Krystal.’ I want to get on an idea I love, I want to find a melody I love and I want us to get a lyric going that we’re all excited about. At the end of the day, if it’s a song we’d record, we’ll record it. If it’s a song that someone else wants to record, let ‘em record it.
A duet after singing solo
PH: Lance, when you’re on stage, is it easy to change gears and be part of a duo when singing with Krystal?
LC: I remember the first time we rehearsed that show at The Dog House, going in to the rehearsal, I was really nervous because I had never sang harmonies before. And Krystal had never really sang harmonies before. But as soon as we got to my drummer’s house, we were all in kind of relaxed clothes and nobody seemed to be uptight or worried about it. We ran through the song a few times. Every time we ran it, it kept getting better and more natural. I had sung the song a lot, just listening to the duet because I love the song. It just seems that every time we sing it now, the more comfortable we get. If there were nerves in the beginning, they’re all gone now. And it’s like ‘Let’s just get on stage and do this!’
Lance then recalled a story behind another song.
LC: We were in the studio getting ready to record, and Krystal played me a song and said, ‘What do you think of this song?’ It was a song called ‘I’m Buying’ and I said, ‘I like it a lot. I wrote it!’
PH: Wait, Krystal, you didn’t know he wrote it?
KK: No. It was a Mason Douglas song as far as I knew. But Mason wrote it with Lance!
PH: A trivia question. Can you tell me a fact that nobody knows about you as a songwriter or an artist?
KK: Hmm… It’s probably the most insecure thing I’ve ever done. I have so much insecurity walking into or out of a [writers] room. And when I’m writing, I’m constantly questioning, ‘Is this a good idea? Is this a good song?’ You leave the room and you want someone outside the room to validate the song before you can believe it’s a good song. So I’m constantly questioning that. Sometimes it’s too easy and you’re, like, this song must suck. Even if I feel it’s good, I always send it to my dad, I send it to my two best friends and my husband. I want that feedback. I send it to my management. When everyone else says it’s good, then I’m comfortable with it. There’s so much competition, it’s easy to question yourself in this industry so I have to keep myself in check. I’ve been doing this my whole life. I know what I’m doing. I’ve just got to have faith in that. And that’s probably the one thing people don’t know is that there’s so much insecurity in this industry and it’s all in the eye of the beholder whether it is good or not.
LC: Another thing nobody knows about Krystal is how much she loves the console in a car. You can’t put anything in that console. It’s ALL her space!
KK: That’s not true! That’s a joke on the road! We told a rep that they can’t put their stuff in there. We were totally joking. They took it seriously and they told the next rep, ‘she has to have the console for all her stuff. Her phone, her drink. She’s got to have room for her milk.’ We since explained it to everybody that it’s a joke.
Lance’s ‘craziest’ song,‘Caught Looking’
LC: Something about me that nobody knows… There is one thing. There’s a song I wrote that Krystal’s heard. It’s called ‘Caught Looking.’ It’s a song that me and five buddies wrote, basically at the end of a party. I might have been drinking Jack Daniel’s when I wrote it. It was so silly, at the end of us writing it, I almost didn’t turn it in to my publisher. And so I waited until we were listening to songs and usually when [my publisher] listens to twenty-five or thirty songs, trying to figure out if we want to do a demo session, he’ll say, ‘Man, my ears are bleeding, I couldn’t hear a good song now if it hit me in the face.’ And I said, ‘Well, I’ve got this other song that I’ve got to play you, technically, because you own part of it, so let’s just play it and it’ll be done.’ So I played it for him and said, ‘There you go.’ And he said, ‘Play it again.’ So I play it again, and he asks, ‘Who are you writing with tomorrow?’ and I told him, and he said, ‘Cancel it, and go demo this song tomorrow!’ And I said, ‘Are you kidding? That song is stupid! It’s the craziest song I ever wrote.’ He said, ‘I know and it’s going to turn a lot of heads.’ So I said, ‘All right.’ And it wasn’t until after the demo got done, when I listened back to it, and I said, ‘Shoot! He was right. This song is awesome!’
KK: It is. It’s one of my favorites. It’s the song that I played to my dad, when I was talking to my dad about doing this duet, and when I played it for him, he did the same thing. He said, ‘Start it over and play it again.’ And then he asked who this kid is and where he’s from and what he’s about, and got him to send over more [songs]. Lance sent over more stuff and he got a record deal.
You can find out more at Lance Carpenter at his website and on Facebook and on most social media @lancecarpenter on most social media.
Check out Krystal Keith at her website and on Facebook and on most social media @krystalkeithmusic
Note: I originally posted this story here on the European website for Country Music News International magazine and radio show.
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Preshias Harrisis a music journalist and music career development consultant with the emphasis on new and aspiring artists and songwriters. Her book, ‘The College of Songology 101: The Singer/Songwriter’s Need to Know Reference Handbook’ is available at www.collegeofsongology.com Follow her blog at www.nashvillemusicline.com