Photo by Allister Ann
With the release of The Civil Wars' new self-titled album, the bittersweet reality is that fans are receiving new material from the treasured duo, but no one knows if we'll actually ever hear it performed live.
Following Joy Williams and John Paul White's very public hiatus, much of the focus surrounding the new LP has been laser-sharp on the fact that the pair hasn't spoken to each other in months. For those who have followed the band over the past few years, from their unconventional beginning to their stratospheric rise and untimely standstill, this moment in the band's career really doesn't sit right.
While the band's current state is certainly relevant, we still remember our very first conversation with the fascinating twosome. Back in the spring of 2010, The Civil Wars were still giving away their debut live EP on Myspace (the old Myspace) and most of their now-enormous international fanbase had yet to discover effusive songs like "Poison & Wine" and "Tip of My Tongue." It was one of the first in a landslide of press to follow for the duo, but Variance reflects fondly on that interview during the Wars' early stages because we were in our early stages as well (we started in 2010).
LISTEN: The Civil Wars' Self-Titled Album on iTunes
As the future remains unknown for this little band that could, we recall a time before their Barton Hollow debut record reached the top 10 on Billboard, before they toured with Adele, before their sold-out trek across the globe, before they played for 25,000 people, before their Golden Globe nomination and their Grammys—plural. Reading this interview by writer Jonathan Robles knowing their current status almost seems unfathomable, but in doing so, we still believe in The Civil Wars and we trust that this is just another chapter for them, with many more to come.
How long have you guys been playing together?
[White]: We actually celebrated a year of performing live in April [2010].
So then you still remember you first show. Where was that?
[White]: We played a place here in east Nashville called The French Quarter Café. And then the second show was at Eddie’s Attic, where we recorded the live download we’ve been giving away.
[Williams]: That was our second show ever! (Laughs) I don’t know what we were thinking! I mean, right!?
It's common for band's to give away a free track download. But what motivated you to do the whole Eddie’s Attic set as a free download?
[Williams]: I think at that point—and we still feel like we’re in the embryonic stage as a band—we knew that a great way to start a conversation with people was by giving away our music. And I think we both feel that the recording that night really captured not only the songs but the live elements between songs.
You wanted to capture that chemistry.
[White]: Exactly. And I think it was the best decision we ever made. Yeah, we’ve played a few opening slots for bands and there [aren’t] a lot of reasons people should know who we are, and yet they’re singing the words to our songs. So it’s exponential the value to us as compared to if we would had sold it.
I know for me, the first song I ever heard was "Poison & Wine." I heard it on YouTube and from there, I found your Twitter and Myspace pages with the download.
[White]: I think the way people go about doing business in music has got to change. So we’re trying to approach this differently—not being afraid to take chances.
Speaking of different, you both live in different states. Joy, you live in Nashville, and JP, you live in Alabama. How do you even make that work as a duo?
[Williams]: It’s not as far as it seems. It’s about 2 hours.
[White]: I usually commute to Nashville. It works pretty well for us, and the beauty of it is that we’re close to so many college towns and metropolitan areas, so we pretty much always play in our “backyard.”
So then how often are you getting together and writing music?
[White]: Pretty much every time we sit down we write a song that we end up playing live and recording. We’ve been very blessed. So we write when we need to write.
[Williams]: I think the concentrated time that we have makes us more intentional about creating when we do get together. I think it’s actually been in our favor—I think it’s kept us focused.
If you could give some advice to other musicians motivated to follow in your footsteps, what would you say?
[White]: (Chuckling) I don’t think we can really give too much advice from our standpoint yet, but I think the one thing that we can control is live performances. It's kind of our hallmark. They can pirate music, but they can’t clone us. Nothing beats being able to perform face-to-face in front of somebody.
[White]: I also think that whether you’re playing at a coffee shop or filling up a stadium or concert hall—which John Paul and I don’t know about yet—it really is all about building relationships one person at a time.
What role has social media played for you guys?
[Williams]: It has been huge!
[White]: The amount of people who know about us—it would have taken years, honestly.
So out of curiosity, how did you get the Grey’s Anatomy spot (for "Poison & Wine") anyway? It's got to feel like a pretty significant achievement, right?
[Williams]: I knew somebody who was actually working on Grey’s—but there were several doors that had to open as well before getting a song on the air. Thankfully, we ended up with a song in a really good spot during the show's season finale. Again, one person at a time. You don’t make relationships so you can ingratiate yourself to get something. But if you treat people right, you never know what can happen.
**Editor's Note: The preceding is a portion of a previously published interview from June 2010.