Our next guest has been on the show a couple of times already, he’s a folk-rock artist and a Fans Choice and Chaos Award nominated musician with four number one singles to his name, he’ll be heading on the road again at the end of August for the No Venues Tour and will be performing a little later this evening. But now he’ll be joining us for a quick chat on a rare TV interview and we’re delighted to welcome him back to the show, so ladies and gentlemen please welcome the enigmatic and hugely talented … Brandon Caulfield!



Brandon, welcome back to the show again, I assume that our previous encounter went well enough that you are willing to visit our studios once more.

“Thank you, it was an interesting experience … it certainly could have gone worse”

Well it was a pleasure to have you on the show, as we established last time, this is something that you very rarely do.

“It’s something that I tend to avoid, yes.”

It’s something that perhaps you have to learn to enjoy though, at least in the industry that you’re involved in though, surely?

“Surprisingly, no … I’m willing to do these things every so often, but there has to be some sort of level of moderation I think. I mean, otherwise you’re just repeating yourself. But I think the fact that I don’t do these interviews so often means that I don’t particularly have to learn to enjoy doing it”

Now, the way that you say that makes it sound like you’re comparing being interviewed by me to that of a colonoscopy.

[laughs] “That’s actually … really rather accurate.”

And there’s me thinking we were friends. Now, you recently performed at a small bar in California, I’m led to believe that it created quite a buzz online, how exactly did that come about?

“It was at a placed called ‘Montana’s’, it’s like this old saloon style bar about five minutes from where I live and I go there quite often, you know? It’s a quiet, low-key sort of place, they play mostly old country and folk songs, it’s a real nice place. But I hadn’t performed for a little while, I hadn’t even picked up a guitar for about a month but every time I went to ‘Montana’s’, my buddy who owns the place constantly says that I should perform there sometime and one morning I just decided that I’d show up with a bunch of musicians and play a couple of songs.”



Well, you say a couple of songs, you performed almost twenty songs.

“Yeah … a couple.” [laughs]

And do you think that re-ignited something inside of you? Because not long after that performance you were announced as one of the headliners of the No Venues Tour.

“That’s exactly it, after the show I told a couple of my buddies that this could be my last live performance for a good few months. There was no plan to tour or work on music or even write or pick up an instrument for pretty much the rest of the year. But I couldn’t have had more fun up on that stage and about a week later, I got a phone call asking if I’d be interested in being a headliner on this tour.”

It’s not the sort of tour that you’ve been involved in before, is that what helped make you decide?

“I think so, yeah. Naturally I tend to perform in smaller concert halls, but I’ve done the big stadium shows with ‘The Bards’ in the past but I haven’t been on any of these festival style tours, so it was because it was something a little different and new that helped me come to a decision. Also it’s a free tour so I imagine that the audience will be a little more diverse which will definitely make it an interesting thing to be a part of.”

And will you be taking anybody with you on your tour?

“There’s a few musicians that I like to perform with and I’ll be assembling a band around me for the tour, it will be a very Celtic/folk sounding affair which will hopefully give an old-school sort of vibe to the performances.”

Will it be difficult to get back home often? Of course since we last spoke, you’ve became a parent to twins and congratulations on that.

“Thank you, I think it’ll be a little tricky to get home very often, there’s a couple of gaps where I can get back home for a couple days but mostly there will be a large degree of separation which I’m sure I’ll have to adjust to.”

Have you considered bringing your family on tour with you? Of course we all know that your wife can sing, so perhaps including her in your band would solve that problem.

[Laughs] “That’s not an option.”

Well I’m sure it won’t be easy to be apart. How are things at home? Are you dealing with the whole parenthood situation well?

“Things are going alright, we’re trudging along somewhat. [laughs] It’s an interesting and eye opening experience, they like to keep you awake as much as possible, they definitely don’t make things easy for you, but they’re happy a lot, I mean it’s a good thing but I’m starting to get a little concerned, ya know?”

[laughs] Well it’s generally considered good if they’re happy. So you’re still living in California?

“Yeah, still living in California. I think other than when I was kid, this is the longest time I’ve ever spent in the same place, I think I’m slowly going insane.”

You’ve spoken in the past about how you’ve always naturally been like some sort of wanderer, is that something that continues to be a part of you?

“You know, I think it’s important to not stay in the same place for too long. There are so many different places and different cultures to explore in the world that really if you can afford to explore these places then there’s no feasible reason for you not to. I’ll never be the biggest fan of California, but you know it’s home right now. It’s not a natural place for me and I’d be far more at home in other places, but you know, it’s home right now.”

I actually read somewhere that you had purchased a home in Nashville, is that true?

[laughs] “Not quite, I think I know the place you’re talking about. I found this incredible place in Nashville, in this secluded community called Forest Hills. I fell for it instantly, you’re right out of the way of the city and you’re sort of high up too, it’s a real big country home with acres of field and space for farming and that sort of thing, it has stables and pens out back for animals, a real old fashioned country home. It’s really quite something, I’ve been talking with the people involved in the sale and it’s not purchased yet, it’s a formality though.”

And I believe you have a place in Indiana too?

“Yeah, it’s just a small lakeside home. We use it for vacations, that sort of thing.”

If I remember correctly, you actually used that place in Indiana to record your first two albums.

“It has quite an echo inside of it and that give this incredible addition to the sound on my first couple of records. It’s not really suitable for recording music, but back then it was a very small scale sort of thing anyway, it was basically myself and a piano, obviously now I bring in a bunch of other musicians and we try to flesh it out a little more.”



And speaking of recording, with the No Venues Tour dates coming up, does this mean that there could be another album on the way, it’s been over a year since your last one.

“No, there’s no album to be released anytime soon. I’ve recorded a lot of songs in the past year and I have an idea for the next solo album, there’s about sixteen songs in total. They just need to be looked at and tweaked here and there but I don’t have any plans to release them anytime soon, there’s a bunch of ideas that I have that I’d like to try out in the future but for me, it’s not the right time for me to put out a new album anytime soon, I think that I will generally release a couple of new singles in the next few months, there’s actually a track being released today.”

Oh yeah? And what can you tell us about the song?

“It’s a song called ‘Nightbirds Are Flyin’, it’s very much a quiet song with a story to it. The lyrics are very much about hard times and a struggle, but yeah it’s just a straight up acoustic track, very much in a similar way to my first album, this one didn’t involve any additional musicians, it’s just a raw thing. Myself and my guitar, very liberating stuff to record having recorded with a backing band for quite a little while now, it was nice to get back to that solitary confinement sort of mind-space and it was enjoyable.”

You did recently do some work on a Reported Failure track, how was that experience?

“It was great to go in and do a little something with a band that I have immense respect for, naturally we don’t fit in the same category as each other but there’s a mutual respect for each other’s work. It was great to work with someone on their own vision and add my own elements to that.”

Could we perhaps see you working with other musicians in the next few months?

“There’s always the opportunity for collaboration, the alternative genre is a very open and diverse genre to be a part of, so there’s always a good chance that I’ll end up working with different people from time to time. I have a lot of friends that are session musicians and we usually work together a lot, but that’s more a case of hanging out with a couple of guitars, nothing is usually recorded in those situations. I have been talking to JR Rhythm and there could be something happening there at some point and I spent some time with Ellie-Grace recently and we talked about maybe writing a couple of songs together, at the moment we’re not sure what will come of that but it should be interesting.”

That would definitely be an interesting collaboration with Ellie-Grace Summers, any ideas what we could expect from these meetings?

“I’m not entirely sure if anything will come of it, basically we met up and spoke about things. We spoke about the possibility of meeting in a studio at some point and trying to write some songs together, if those songs turn out to be good or different or interesting then we’ll perhaps look to put them out but it’s looking like it could be a very unplanned and natural sort of collaboration between us.”

Well we certainly can’t wait to see what becomes of this possible collaboration, thank you once again for dropping by the Late Show studio and good luck with the new single and everything with the family. Ladies and gentlemen … Brandon Caulfield!