Two Weeks In Nashville: ‘I just wanted them all to be there for this anthemic outro, a big euphoric moment’

Lingfield, Surrey indie rock band Two Weeks In Nashville will release their infectiously good third album ‘Stickman Rock’ tomorrow (19 April), which heralds a darker and more ambitious sound.

The band comprises frontman and guitarist Billy LeRiff, Marc De Luca (guitar) and Ian Wilson (drums). LeRiff met Wilson at The Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, Surrey. De Luca joined the band five years ago when he moved across from France and they were looking for a guitarist online.

A writing trip to Nashville inspired their name, as LeRiff told me last time we chatted: ‘It was unbelievable,’ he said. ‘We were lucky to go there for two weeks, getting away from the rat race in London and Nashville has such a different atmosphere. We had a friend there –  Allen McKendree Palmer  – he saw us perform in London and invited us to stay. I don’t think he expected us to follow through! That trip transpired into our music – our debut album, ‘Paper Planes and Razor Blades’, was recorded there – and we felt the need to pay homage to the city with our name.’

‘It navigates through some pretty dark themes for us compared to our last record, Neon Pop’

‘Stickman Rock’ marks a spirited return to the band’s rock and guitar-driven origins. With ‘Forget and Forgive’ leading the charge, the album dives into a deeper, rockier sound: ‘It navigates through some pretty dark themes for us compared to our last record, Neon Pop,’ LeRiff said. ‘Our love for rock music really came through and we thought this was a nice follow up. I don’t like saying going back to our roots because it sounds kind of old hat (laughs) but it was returning to our love for big rock bands and arena rock. We actually recorded both albums at the same time and finished recording in 2022. We worked with our session bassist, Duncan Brookfield, who produced this record as well and it was all recorded at our home studio where I’m currently sat and where we live together.’

The opener, ‘Is There Anybody Out There?’, is a classic in the making, it’s hooky and stompy, giving you a good idea what to expect from the rest of the album: ‘I thought it was a nice opener, the idea of “Is there anybody out there?” I thought that was a funny play on “Is there anyone listening?” It’s very much the starting point for the album,’ LeRiff said. ‘The lyrics, they just came to me. I wrote it with Marc, the guitarist, it started with the bass riff. We built around that and it was actually three different songs that we pulled together to make this final track! I really enjoy his guitar work on it. We both play across the album but Marc takes very much the lead in this song. We pictured an arena singing the chorus like a chant with their lights up. ‘Is There Anybody Out There?’ is inspired by ‘Shine A Light’ by The Rolling Stones. It was also very inspired by ‘Paint It Black’. We tried to go for the same kind of intro with an almost Bond-like chord, quite Latin American and then Ian comes in with these big thumping drums! The outro also features our friend Big T (aka Terrence Au) on violin. We love the energy he brought to this track, he’s just so bloody good!’

As the track kicks off: “Gotta keep on looking forwards.
Stay on the right side of the track. We’ve lived through a hurricane. And there ain’t no turning back. I can’t perform miracles
but we can still light up this town. We’re in it for the long term, girl. And I will never let you down.”

The Rolling Stones have been a big inspiration to LeRiff over the years and he has some fascinating stories about their early days: ‘I think the writing duo of Jagger and Richards is very impressive,’ he said very animatedly. ‘I actually found out recently that their producer and manager at the beginning, Allen Klein, told Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to start writing tracks for other artists before they started writing Stones songs, so they actually wrote a few hits for artists in the 60’s. They’re sung by female pop singers at the time (including Marianne Faithfull). I think one track, ‘The Last Time’, which ended up being a Stones song was actually originally written for someone else.’

‘It symbolises the songs’ existence: it’s simple, expressive, fun and easy’

LeRiff describes the album cover for Stickman Rock as a kind of ‘Where’s Wally?’ depicting the stickmen musicians on the artwork all coming together in one piece, designed by De Luca: ‘It symbolises the songs’ existence: it’s simple, expressive, fun and easy,’ he said. ‘Whatever we do next will be different, we’ve ticked the boxes on the icon images now!’

He has some great guitars on his wish list: ‘If money was no object, my dream guitar would have to be the Gibson Firebird that I played and recorded our debut album with in Nashville,’ he said. ‘I think it was a ’63, she was a beautiful bird, old and had definitely been round the block but that just added to the feel and sound. I think the only problem was the tuning stability – that must’ve added at least a day to the recording process!’

‘Forget and Forgive’ on the new album reels you in from the Bond-like chords and slight 80’s feel, you could easily imagine George Michael singing it, as it soars to a huge, guitar-driven chorus: ‘We put it out first to some close music friends of ours that have been really supportive over the last few years as we value their thoughts,’ LeRiff said. ‘Which is why we’re going with ‘Forget and Forgive’ as the lead track. It has themes of betrayal, the importance of making amends and the transformative power of forgiveness. It’s like when you get caught out or you catch your partner out. It’s the play of a relationship; there are lines that can be crossed. Often, songs are reflective stories of what’s going on within my day-to-day life but this one I wrote with my friend, Gary Stevens. We created this fantasy story about a couple. At the end of the day you have to forget and forgive and move on but there’s definitely some drama beforehand.’

As the song kicks off: “You get what you give. Forget and forgive. I’m so tired of your fooling around.
 Been caught out, sleeping about. You only get one shot, make it count. That’s all you’ve got. Don’t think that there’s any doubt. What life’s about.”

‘The first song I sung was Jet’s ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’!’

LeRiff grew up in a musical household, as he told me last time we chatted: ‘Me and my two siblings were always playing music around the house,’ he said. ‘My mum would also be playing a range of music from Jamie Cullum and Norah Jones to Jamiroquai and Oasis. I had a couple of piano lessons when I was very young but I was more interested in the drums (laughs). I played the drums in a band at school and when the singer left, I thought maybe I could give it go, even though I hadn’t been a singer before. The first song I sung was Jet’s ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’! I then went on to studied vocals for a year at ACM, where I learned various techniques and how to use my voice in different ways. If I’d continued to sing the way I used to, not warming up properly, I probably wouldn’t be singing for much longer! In the studio, I’m thinking about my technique and approach but when jamming and writing, it’s not on my mind.’

He describes his brother as ‘an amazing keyboard player’ and his sister is an actor: ‘At some stage, I would love him to play live for us on keys, he is a great multi-instrumentalist and songwriter – ‘Best Thing I Ever Had’, I wrote with my brother, Oscar. It’s about him leaving his ex-girlfriend, so that was quite a personal one. My sister, Tatiana, is an actor and has a podcast called ‘Dirty Talk’, which is on TikTok and YouTube.’

There has been some endearing rivalry over the years, which they’ve laid to rest as adults: ‘When we were younger, we were very competitive (laughs). I’m the eldest, but Oscar picked up guitar before me and I was like: “Damn, I want to be able to play guitar and I want to play it better than he can!” We used to share guitar lessons and it would be an hour and we’d have half an hour each. However, Oscar would talk through his 30 minutes so he didn’t have to play (laughs), and this would usually eat into mine! So by the end, I had about 15 minutes to play guitar. But since we’ve grown up a little bit, he’s now really loving his music again. Oscar’s turned out to be a great songwriter and we work very well together. That’s really nice.’

Other tracks such as ‘Selfish Like Me’ were born out of lockdown but have evolved over time to mean something else, according to LeRiff: ‘It was the birthplace of the album, I think that’s why it’s very rock, very guitar-driven. We were like: “Let’s get back to playing live and let’s do what we like doing”.’

‘I love collaborating with others when I’m writing, I find it much more interesting to take inspiration from different places and, essentially, different ways of writing music’

He is a big fan of songwriting with other people, citing, in particular, ‘Easy Come, Easy Go’, which he wrote with Gary Stevens, Jacob Constance, Andrew Stevens: ‘It’s one of my personal faves on the album,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘Jacob and Andrew came to me with the chords and instrumentation. I love collaborating with others when I’m writing, I find it much more interesting to take inspiration from different places and essentially, different ways of writing music. They didn’t have any vocal ideas but as soon as Gary and I heard it, we knew what was required and that emotion came out. So we re-recorded the track, added more guitars, of course, and few extra sounds.’

The track is also their homage to Radiohead with the ‘no surprises’ line: ‘We’ve got a glockenspiel in the background and I think Radiohead used a glockenspiel in a couple of their tracks too,’ he said. ‘We always try to subtly reference our favourite artists.’

‘You Can Have It All’, with its Chariots of Fire style intro, is an inspired closer which builds and builds, a real Carpe Diem song designed to leave the listener on a high. I tell him that it’s a song that leaves things very open as to where their sound will go next, that it feels like the beginning of a new chapter rather than an ending: ‘That is exactly why it was the closer and exactly what I want people to take from it, which is awesome you feel that way,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘With that track, we really tried to reference our 90’s heroes like Primal Scream and Oasis. We’ve got a drum machine throughout the whole track and then you get the real drums that come in for the outro. We thought it could be the finale to our live show as well with the big chant at the end.’

‘It was magical, it was the most festive, warm experience, it was just incredible’

The layered chorus of voices at the end lifts the whole track, there’s something almost angelic about it and it turns out that many people involved in the album pitched in: ‘It’s a lot of us four guys layered up but we actually gathered the troops, including my family and a few of the songwriters.’ he said. ‘I just wanted them all to be there for this anthemic outro, a big euphoric moment.’

Last time we chatted, we got onto Jamie Cullum’s Christmas album, The Pianoman at Christmas, which had come out a couple of months previously and when I remind him of it, he gets very animated: ‘That’s funny, he’s a big influence on my brother, too. We play a lot of Jamie Cullum tracks at home. We’ve been to see him live several times, including the Christmas one at the Royal Albert Hall. He played the whole Christmas album in full! And then he finished with a few hits of his, it was magical, it was the most festive, warm experience, it was just incredible. We took our grandma as well, who loves her jazz music. She had her first date with my grandpa at the Royal Albert Hall, so it was quite a special moment.’

If LeRiff could write a song with anyone, he picks Tennessee country singer Morgan Wallen: ‘He had a really big track called ‘Last Night’, which came out on his album (One Thing At A Time, 2023). It’s been the biggest country album of all time! I think it’s got 36 songs on it. It’s pretty impressive. I thought it was too many when I first saw it but I’ve been listening to it on repeat, so clearly it’s not enough! I’ve really got into my country and I would love to write with him. There’s something about a country track that’s just so simple yet so clever. We’re working on some country songs at the moment, which I think is going to be fun! We’ll see how many songs we can get together… perhaps 37 (laughs)!’

I ask him which musicians he’d most like to go drinking with: ‘That’s another tough one, isn’t it?! Just thinking now on the spot, probably Keith Richards. I feel like he’s got some good stories! Yeah, I mean, I don’t know how much of the 60’s and 70’s he can remember (laughs) but they did that free show in America where they had the Hells Angels as their security. One of the Hells Angels ended up stabbing a member of the crowd because they saw him aiming a gun at Jagger metres from the stage! It’s all in the film ‘Gimme Shelter’. Oh my God, if he can remember, I’m sure he must be able to!’