From the Chesapeake Bay to Nashville to a beach house in Port St. Joe.
If you're a fan of country music, chances are you've heard more than one hit from this brotherly twosome from Deale, Maryland. They may come from one of the more unlikely specks on the map for country music stardom, but that sure hasn't hindered the popularity of their work along their musical trek from the Mid-Atlantic region to Nashville to airwaves and playlists in your neck of the woods.
Their critically acclaimed second album, Port Saint Joe, debuted at No. 2 on Billboard's Top Country Albums and No. 15 on the Billboard 200, going on to sell over 110,000 copies. Not bad for an album that was recorded on their terms, in the raw, at their producer's beach house. Skeletons, their third album, features 12 songs, all written or co-written by TJ and John, and produced by multi-platinum producer Jay Joyce.
Having grown up in rural, small-town Deale, Maryland, what drew you to country music, and when did you first decide you wanted to pursue music?
TJ: I don't know it was ever a conscious decision to become country music artists, until we decided to move to Nashville. We were just always around it. Our mom and dad both played music and wrote songs, and our family would sit around the kitchen table and play. For a long time, John and I just kind of thought all families did that. Our dad would play with our uncle Billy and our cousin Johnny. We always wanted to participate, and these guys took it seriously. They weren't going to let some kids sit around and bang on guitars. So we had to learn to play and be good for them to let us be a part of it.
By our teenage years, we really took it seriously and started going out to some of the local bars on Chesapeake Bay. There's a lot of tiki bars and other places we could play. It was me, my brother and my dad. Then we came to Nashville and played some of the bars on Broadway for about a year, then moved back to Maryland for a year, then moved here right after I graduated high school.
Our mom and dad both played music and wrote songs, and our family would sit around the kitchen table and play.
What was the inspiration for Port Saint Joe, and tell our readers about your draw to the Gulf Coast fishing village by the same name.
John: Port Saint Joe was really a bit unorthodox, and was a departure from how we normally record music. We recorded the album in the house of our producer, Jay Joyce, and we wanted that real beach feel. We left a lot of that sound in the finished recording, right down to the parts where you can hear Tommy, Jay's brother, in the kitchen, where the drums were set up. He was cooking and playing drums, along with the music, with a spatula, and just jamming out. So we just decided to keep it real and leave some of that in there.
TJ: With Port Saint Joe we didn't want the feel of recording in a house on the beach, as opposed to in a studio, to be lost. So we didn't tidy it up too much. We really wanted the feel of what Port St. Joe as a place really is to translate on the record. With Skeletons we really took a different approach and got back in the traditional studio.
What makes Skeletons different from your previous works?
TJ: We want this record to show people that we're here to stay. We are a part of the cloth of this genre. Ultimately, what we love to do most is play live, and Skeletons is going to allow us to do that better than ever before.
John: If Pawn Shop was our introduction, and Port Saint Joe was like the first conversation we had with someone over a beer, then Skeletons is the moment where you start getting down to the real stuff and showing who you really are. If you really want to get to know Brothers Osborne, this is the record.
Your single "Hatin' Somebody" seems particularly relevant right now. Had it been in the works a long time?
John: We actually wrote that song back in 2019. This whole 2020 has only exacerbated any issue that we had leading up to it. So it wasn't like us trying to capitalize on anything. It's about something our country has been dealing with for a very long time. It just so happens that now it's reached a boiling point.
We wanted that song to be about putting your arm around the guy next to you, even though he may be different than you.
What are your musical influences?
TJ: I listen to a lot of different music. From the Beach Boys to the Everly Brothers to the Allman Brothers. There are just so many influences. I listen to Tom Petty, John Mellencamp, AC/DC.
John: A record that is really badass, that I've been listening to, is Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia. It wouldn't really be reflected in our record, but it's just some of the best pop and musical production that I've ever heard. And one of my favorite pop artists of all time is Bruno Mars. I'm a massive Bruno Mars fan.
We love AC/DC because of the guitars. It's a primal kind of music. To play along with it isn't hard to do, though to play like Angus Young, note for note, is difficult. When you see that music live, even as a musician, you can't help but say, "Damn, I want to play like that!"
If you weren't making music for a living, what do you think your job would be?
TJ: I've been asked this question so many times, and I still don't have an answer for it. I never had a plan B. I remember thinking, if I have to live in a cardboard box, but I have a guitar, I will be okay. I think having a plan B can be the kiss of death. In an industry like this sometimes you just have to go all in. And that's what we did. Thank God it panned out because I don't know if I'm really good at anything else.
If you had to live one place for a year and couldn't leave, where?
John: It's always a toss-up between the beach and the mountains for me. 30A is really just such an incredible spot. There's a reason why it's so coveted and everyone wants to go there. It's not only the beach, it's just very cultural, it's the whole package. But the older I get, I think maybe I just want to go to the mountains for a while. We're buddies with Dierks Bentley, and he has a place out in Telluride and it's just so nice.
TJ: I like the beach and the mountains. I'm not sure I could choose just one. But I also like where I live right here in Nashville. I love Florida's Gulf Coast though, and there's a reason so many people who can go anywhere go to Destin and the 30A beaches and that whole area. It's beautiful.
What are your interests and hobbies outside of music?
John: I've always been fairly artistic, but since quarantine happened, I started painting. I just put the guitar down for a while during the time we were stuck at home and just painted. With the music, we're working with each other, and our producer, and the label, and with painting it's just me. In a strange way, it's really helped my music too. Because once I got tired of painting, I all of a sudden had a ton of musical ideas. I just had to let my brain rest.
Story by Will Estell · Photography by Natalie Osborne, Eric Ryan Anderson, and Reid Long · Originally published in Beach Happy Magazine, Issue 2
