Love and Theft’s Stephen Barker Liles and Eric Gunderson had a lot of career decisions to make in 2014.
The duo — which actually began life as a trio; their third founding member, Brian Bandas, left the group in 2011 — had experienced the thrill of a No. 1 hit in 2012 with “Angel Eyes,” only to see their next radio attempts fall short of their initial success. They lost their recording deal with RCA Nashville and had to do some serious meditating on their next move.
They decided to independently record and release their new album, Whiskey on My Breath, which released today (Feb. 10). Stephen and Eric’s perfect harmonies are a focal point of the collection, which they co-produced with Josh Leo and filled with songs they had written over the years but not recorded.
“We just found an opportunity like, hey, we can do this right now and we already have the songs,” explains Stephen. “We don’t have to go look for any more, let’s do this right now and we don’t have to worry about ownership.”
Recently the duo sat down with The Boot and talked about their recent release and their mentality as they embark on a career reboot.
The Boot asked “It’s been a few years since the last album, and a lot has happened in between: You’ve had a kid and gotten married, and Eric also had a child. How have those big milestones, and the time in between albums in general, influenced this record?”
“Over time, as your life changes and your career changes, and you go through having a family and buying a house and all of that, I think … songwriting, all that stuff, changes. The songs on the new album, some of them I wrote before having a child, so, you know, there’s some party songs on the album, and there’s also some very serious songs. So, we’ve got a little mixture, and I think the production definitely leans toward a more mature sound for us, something that we wanted to do on other records, but we just didn’t have the creative control that we have now with this album.” says Stephen Liles.
The album Whiskey On My Breath is available for purchase and download HERE.
photo: c/o Vector Management
