Keifer Thompson of Country Duo Thompson Square Talks About the Status of Third Album

Keifer: You know it’s funny that we keep hearing that we’re glad you guys are back (Laughter), we took six months off because of the kid not like at Tibet for ten years you know. We’re really excited about this record and is just so Thompson Square and is one of those songs (You Make It Look So Good) we heard for the first time and we’re blown away and knew we had to have it and actually one we didn’t write. And is kind a odd that it felt so close to home without us writing it and really fortunate to have this one.

Keifer: (Laughter) well you know, certain things happen and waited see how fast the song would happen before we put a record out and were writing up to the eleventh hour that every song was good as it could be and kept falling into new creative modes and kept finding new life and new collaborations. So honestly, it’s a typical artist thing that it is never finished and when to stop.

I think between us and our label (Stoney Creek Records) we are trying to decide what’s best for us and sometimes that is not the easiest conversation to have and I think that is why we put off honestly to make sure the producer is right and the songs are right and everything else because we didn’t feel it was all together how we wanted to be represented. We put it on the back burner honestly for right now just because the whole combination of song producer and arraignments and everything else there weren’t what we wanted it to be out there because this is a very important record for us.

Obviously, we want this to be the very best record out we ever put out. That’s your goal every time and try to beat what you had before and living up to “Kiss Me or Not” is definitely a difficult thing to do sometimes but we evolved from then. We have Cooper now (their first child) and is a different emotional roller coaster we are living right now. It’s really fun.

I would say it’s been over three years since we had record out which is really ridiculous which is not all us that decided to do that and three years goes by like a blink and that’s the crazy thing. When the song slows on the chart, you need to put a album out every year and you can barely put a song on the chart now because the way business has changed. I would say it will be this year, the first part of the year. I would assume there are big changes with label right now so that will have to play out to see what we do and where we end up and all that stuff. There is a lot of factors right now.

Keifer: So far yeah, it’s been little bit of a mix where we wrote most of everything right now with other writers and we found really great outside songs we didn’t write. We’re always looking for the best songs and don’t care if we were the ones who wrote it or not. “Kiss Me Or Not” wasn’t written by us nor was this new one “You Make It Look So Good” and song kind a of wins.

Keifer: Yeah, absolutely, we been performing three or four new songs to kind of test of them a little bit to see what the crowd is digging on. It’s a really cool thing to do that because you get to see really first hand to see the crowd react to a brand new song a song they haven’t heard yet and if they are reacting to it, the chances are you are in the right frame of mind and wheel house.

Keifer: I have no idea. It could be ten or sixteen. Our label likes to be extra songs on the album, and I’m not sure that is necessary. I don’t know yet, it’s still a work in progress, and like I said there changes happening at the label right now and don’t know exactly what’s going to happen.

Keifer: First three years we did major tours and kind of decided for us the most fun for us to do our own shows. So the last two or three years we did our own shows and this year will be the same thing. And we like headlining our tour, doing what we want to do and play as long as we want to and if we want to play two hours and we can go over two hours and not worry about getting on anybody’s toes. We just kind of prefer that system.

Keifer: We will do a full tour of about eighty to hundred shows this year. Cooper travels with us, and he loves it, and we have a nanny and all that stuff. The first few years we did over two hundred and fifty shows, and obviously, we won’t do that anymore but somewhere between eighty to a hundred and twenty shows is good for us.

Keifer: Well, that is the crazy thing man with a six month old that we haven’t shot a video for us and this kind of crazy to make your fans wait that long. But Shawna and I shot a little home video is home footage we made for us and our management saw it and played it kind of behind our backs and played it on TV. You know for a official video, that if this single keeps breathing one thing I want to do this first quarter is to a proper video for that song. Every song deserves to be seen and not just heard so that is one thing we definitely we want to do.

Keifer: No way, not even close.

Keifer: In limbo.

Keifer: Yeah man, we’re working our heads off. Just because people don’t see singles coming out all the time and everything else, we are working in the background killing our selves writing on tons of songs, working on production, ideas and stuff like that. There are countless hours for what the final product will look like.

Keifer: Yeah.

Keifer: Nathan Chapman (Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban and The Band Perry) is on there and produced “You Make It Look So Good” and really nailed it I thought. We are still figuring everything else out.

Keifer: We have kids book coming out this year called “Time To Get Dress” I wrote this past year. It started out to be a song, and then it turned into a book. There is another big change this year but cannot announce it yet bit will be really neat if it comes to fruition. A lot of stuff and will be a busy freaking year.

Keifer: Yeah, we did that once and was a lot of fun and hopefully we can do that again. We have to have a big single or songs before you get a chance to do that and hopefully, that would be great.

Keifer: I appreciate it. The song is great and our fans loving it and I encourage people to buy it and if they digging it then buy it and huge thing for any artist and radio is just that and everybody looks at that to see how much their selling and playing and stuff like that and make the road a lot easier when the fans are supporting your artistry via purchase. So I encourage all the Thompson Square fans out there if they dig it, buy it, learn it and when you come to a show we are all going to sing together and will be a lot more fun that way.

Keifer: Yeah man, we had conversation last night about that and we talked about doing that for a few years now and we keep getting talked out of it and I finally told them (management) last night that this is what Shawna and I want to do so figure out how to make it happen. We have played overseas before, and we want to do a real tour over there. So maybe this fall we will go over there.

Keifer: This month at Davenport, Iowa.

Keifer: Is a headlining show at a casino.

Keifer: So are we and will let you know when it happens.

Keifer: It was good talking to you brother.